COL.  GEORGE  WASHINGTON  FLOWERS 
MEMORIAL  COLLECTION 


DUKE  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 
DURHAM,  N.  C. 


PRESENTED  BY 

W.  W.  FLOWERS 


S  E  R  31 0  N  S 


!. 


n 

DELIVERED  DE  HE    ' 


GENERAL   ASSEMBLY 


AT 


I     4       ' 


milled;geville,  ga. 


ON- 


FAST  DAY,  MARCH  27,  1863, 


BOUGHTON",   NISBET   A   . 

IS''. 


<<*&  *  tf^Srirv*  vV 


+&Jk*Ls-^  sJfl® 


•.    ' 


■4  \*> 


r&  &^^4d 


3  I  15  j?H 


7*  ?..  ■ 

yOferfe-       SERMON 


(iF 

BISHOIP    PIERCE, 

BEFORE  THE 

GENERAL  ASSEMBLY  OF  GEORGIA. 
March  27th,  1863. 


■    . 

6.— Keep  tliercWPb  andllo  them :  for  this  is  your  wisdom  understand 

iugin  the  sight  of  thte   nations,  which  Bhall  hear  fill  these  Btatutea  and  say,  8urel] 
this  great  nation  is  .1  wise  and  understanding  people. 

r.— For  what  nation  is  there  90  great,  who  hath  Hod  so  nigh  unto  thom,  as  tin 
Lord  our  God  is  in  all  things  that  we  call  upon  him  for7 

6.— And  what   nation   is  there  so  grout,  thai  hath   statutes  and  Judgments  si 
righteous  a*  all  this  law  which  [sol  before  you  this  day?—  Deuteronomy  1} 
ter,  1 '.'A,  1  tli,  BlA  verges. 

As  a  citizen   of  the  Confederacy  interested  in  commoi 
with  others  in  its  deliverance  from  our  enemies — in  theearlj 
and  permanent  establishment  of  peace — as  a  christian  fully 
persuaded  that  there  is  an  over-ruling  Providence  in  the 
affairs  of  nations  as  well  as  of  men,  I  rejoice  that  our  Chief 
Magistrate,  in  all  the  great  crises  of  the  country,  summons  the 
people,  one  and  all,  to   fasting,  humiliation  and  prayer.     I 
I  am  especially  glad  that  he  does  this,  not  as  a  courteous 
concession  to  what  he  regards  a  popular  superstition,  but 
Iron  honest,  convictions  of  religious  duty  and  official  respon- 
sibility.    The  tone,  language,  sentiments  of  all  his  procla- 
mations on  these  occasions  demonstrate  that  be  unfeignedly 
recognizes  his,   our  and   the  dependence  ot  the   people  on 
God,  and  believes  that  cordial,  earnest,  unite;!  supplication 
will  secure  the  divine  blessing  upon  our  arms  and  upon  the 
administration  of  the  Government.    This  idea   I   trust  is 
common  among  all  the  people.    Once  dormant,  it,  has  been 
roused,  vivified,  made  practical,  and  though  doubted  and 
even  denied  by  some,  its  truth  has  been  enthroned   by  re- 
peated, signal,  almost   marvelous,  interpositions  in  our  be- 
half.     The   coincidence   of  these  interventions   with  th.- 
prayer  of  the  people  have  left  no  or  doubt,  and  haw 

wrung   from    profane,    even    sceptical    lips,   tl  l    Fessiou, 

God  reigneth,  and  God  is  for  us  and  with  us.  Founding 
i.,\  opinion  upon  the  historic  records  ol  the  <  >1<1  Testament, 
1  canuol  doubt  but  that  the,,.'  official  acts  piously  performed 
by  the  powers  that  be,  and  reverenth  acknowledged  by  the 
people,  bring  our  country  with  all  il  interests  into 

peculiar  covenant  relations  with  God.  and  enlist  in  our  de- 


262 


^  (■  n  :"> 


4 

fense,  the  resources  which  God  alone  can  command.  This 
conclusion  is  justified  not  only  by  many  examples  in  the 
liis to ry  of  the  Kings  of  Israel  and  Judah,  and  by  the  gen- 
eral promises  of  the  Bible  to  penitence  and  prayer,  but  by 
.all  the  facts  and  circumstances  which  characterize  this  rev- 
olution, i  This  war  is  not  of  our  seeking.  We  labored  to 
avoid  it.  Our  propositions  fur  amicable  adjustment  were 
rejected  with  subtlety  and  guile.  We  claimed  only  our 
■own.  We  asked  nothing  of  our  enemies.  We  do  not  seek 
£heir  land,  or  houses,  or  property.  We  are  not  fighting  to 
■extend  our  territory,  to  subdue  a  neighboring  people,  to 
■sisurp  dominion,  to  gratify  ambition,  or  malice,  or  revenge. 
Faithful  to  the  letter  and  the  spirit  of  the  old  Constitution — 
asserting  only  the  fundamental  right  of  self  government, 
we  are  but  defending  ourselves  against  a  proud,  rapacious, 
malignant  foe,  who,  without  light  or  reason,  against  law  and 
flight  and  humanity,  comes  clown  full  of  hate  and  rage  to 
--enslave  or  exterminate  us.  We  are  fighting  for  liberty  and 
lipme  and  family  ;  for  firesides  and  fields  and  altars  ;  tor  all 
that  is  dear  to  the  brave,  or  precious  to  the  good  ;  for  our 
herds  and  our  flocks,  our  men  servants  and  maid  servants  ; 
for  the  heritage  of  our  fathers  and  the  rights  of  our  child- 
ren ;  for  the  honor  of  humanity  and  the  institutions  of  Pro- 
vidence. We  are  fighting  against  robbery  and  lust  and  ra- 
pine;  against  ruthless  invasion,  a  treacherous  despotism. 
the  blight  of  its  own  land,  and  the  scorn  of  the  world': 
£8ongrel  armies  whose  bond  of  union  is  plunder,  and  whose 
watch  words  are  are  but  delusion  and  falsehood  ;  a  fraud 
•upon  the  African,  a  lie  to  the  North,  and  an'  insult  to  the 
.South.  There  is  therefore  no  object  proposed  by  our  Gov- 
ernment, no  end  aimed  at  on  which  we  may  not  consistent- 
ly;, piously,  sc  ri.pt  urally  invoke  the  Divine  blessing.  We 
.may  pray  "  according  to  the  will  of  God."  The  triumph 
*>f  our  arms  is  the  triumph  of  right  and  truth  and  justice. 
'The  defeat  of  our  enemies  is  the  defeat  of  wrong  and  malice 
and  outrage.  Our  Confederacy  has  committed  herself  to 
no  iniquitous  policy,  no  unholy  alliances,  no  unwarrantable 
!>lans  either  for  defense  or  retaliation,  and  wok?,  with  numer- 
ous, hostile  hosts  quartered  on  her  soil,  and  a  powerful  navy 
feeleaguerins:  her  coast,  amid  provocations  innumerable, 
tinder  threatenings  the  most  diabolical,  without  fear  of  the 
.future,  ready  for  the  conflict  if  our  deluded,  infatuated  ene- 
K»£es  urge  it  on  her,  she  is  ready  to  make  peace  on  just  and 
ihei.var.able, terms.  In  praying  for  such  a  government,  I  feel 
ttat  the  way  to  the  mercy  seat  is  open.  jVly  faith  is  unem- 
barrassed. My  hope  is  buoyant.  I  feel  that  I  have  access 
.to  Him  who  rules  in  righteousness.  The  attitude  of  our 
country, is  sublime.  With  her  foot  planted  on  right  and 
her  trust  in  God,  undismayed  by  numbers  and  armaments 
.and  navies,  without  the  sympathy  of  the  world,  shut  in, 


cut  off,  alone,  she  lias  battled  through  two  long,  weary 
years,  gallantly,  heroically,  triumphantly,  and  to-day  is 
stronger  in  men,  resources,  faith  and  hope  than  when  Fort 
Sumter's  proud  Hag  was  lowered  to  Her  maiden  arms.  It 
is  the  Lord's  doing, and  it  is  marvelous  in  our  eyes.  Stand- 
in  ir,  then,  upon  the  justice  of  our  cause  and  the  righteous- 
ness of  our  aim,  and  encouraged  by  the  experience  of  the 
past,  let  us  lift  up  humble,  thankful  hearts  to  the  God  of 
all  our  mercies,  and  with  emboldened  faith  commit  our  des- 
tiny into  His  hand,  whom  winds  and  seas  obey,  who  ruleth 
in  the  armies  of  heaven  and  among  the  inhabitants  of 
earth. 

It  is  impossible  to  tell  how  the  same  truth  may  affect 
different  minds,  but  allow  me  to  say,  that  among  the  many 
reasons  which  inspire  my  hope  of  the  future  and  give  vigor 
to  my  confidence  in  the  ultimate  establishment  ol  our  inde- 
pendence, I  rely  with  cheerful  assurance  upon  a  single  fact,. 
Lhat  is.  that  the  Southern  people  with  all  their  faults — vices 
if  you  please — have  never  corrupted  the  gospel  of  Christ. 
Amid  indifference,  neglect  and  affected  unbelief,  unfortu- 
nately but  too  common  in  many  places,  I  do  not  believe- 
there  is  a  community  in  our  broad  lands  who  would  have 
countenanced  or  even  tolerated  a  political  yrcacliCT.  The 
preacher  who  would  have  prostituted  the  pulpit  to  parts 
purposes,  inculcated  theories  of  duty  or  government  un- 
known to  the  Constitution  or  the  Bible,  would  have  been 
ouclawed,  expatriated  as  a  hypocrite,  a  vile  pretender,  a. 
wolf  in  sheep's  clothing.  Our  Sabbaths  have  not  been  des- 
ecrated by  political  harangues,  seditious  denunciations  ol 
government  and  rulers  by  men  claiming  the  sanctity  of  the 
priesthood,  only  to  supercede  and  substitute  the  gospel  of 
God  by  a  pscudo  philanthropy.  Our  churches  and  confer- 
ences and  associations  have  not  been  profaned  and  defiled  "by 
perverse  disputings  of  men  of  corrupt,  minds  and  destitute- 
of  the  truth" — "questions  and  strife  of  words  whereol 
cometh  envy,  strife,  railings  and  evil  surmisings."  Our  so- 
ciety has  never  shown  an  appetency  for  the  isms  and  hum- 
bugs of  a  prurient,  godless  philosophy  ;  our   education 

•  been  made  the  tool  of   fanaticism,   the   vehicle  of 
ganiziiig  ideas,  the    lever  of  a  libertine    revoluti 
Our   religiou   has    never  resolved   itself  into  convent! 
-into  a  geographical   conscience,  and  erected 
3  of  any  people  into  "a  higher  law"   thai 
revelation.     With   us,  thank  God,  the  Bible  has  1 
a  mount  that  burned  with  fire,  which  no  man  dared  to  to 
The  voice  issuing  from  its  smoke  and  tempest  has  I 

ed  as  the  the  Great  Jehovah,  and  the  hand 

writing  of  the  Almighty  o  •  Ktion  of  the 

lard  of  morals  and  the  basis  of  right,  and 
thority  from  which  there  is  no  appeal,     'i 

o  o  »•*  r  on 


6 

baneful  signiiicancy,  when   we   remember  that   God's  gov- 
ernment of  the  world  all  looks  to  the  fortunes  of  Christian- 
ity.    The  dominion  of  Christ  is  to   be   universal — from  sea 
to  sea.     In  the  divine  plan   political  changes,  commercial 
interests,  forms  of  government,  are  secondary  considerations, 
mere  instruments  to  an  end — that  end   the  glory  of  God  in 
the    triumph    of   truth.     If  men   set  themselves   in    array 
against  the  truth  of  God,  cither  by  subtle  logic  or  open 
violence,  they  will  be  broken  in  pieces,  as  a  potter's  vessel 
with  a  rod  of  iron.     If  a  nation,  in  its  conceit  of  wisdom 
and  its   impudence   of   pretension,  determines  what  God. 
•ought  to  will  and  say  and  do,  and   overrides  His  institutes 
thy   their   own    speculations,   and    with    unanointed  hands 
-  touches  the  holy  ark,  the  doom  of  Uzzah  will  be  their  his- 
toric epitaph.-   If  a  people  give  themselves  up  to  infidelity, 
.erect  their  reason  into  a  counsellor  of  the  Almighty,  and 
make  a  majority  vote  higher  authority  in  morals  as  well  as 
politics  than  the  Constitution  of  the  land  and  the  Book  of 
heaven,  be  sure  that  signal  punishment  treads  fast  upon  the 
.  heels  of  their  blasphemous  lolly.     All   this  our  .Northern 
,.  enemies  have  done.     Wise  above  what  is  written,  they  have 
.mistaken  sedition  for  liberty,  cant  for  piety  ;  loud-mouthed 
,'. champions  for  the  freedom  of  the  black  man,  they  have 
trampled  in  the  dust  the  most  sacred  rights  of  their  own 
'"people  ;  with  peace  upon  their  tongues,  they  have  brought 
,.on  and  keep  up  a  gigantic  war.     Swollen  with  vanity,  they 
despise  the  lessons  of  the  past  ;  confident  in  the  pride  and 
power  ol  numbers,  they  are  tearing  down  their  own  govern- 
^uent  with   the   hope   of  destroying  us,  andr  every   step   of 
me\yt  progress  is  marked  with  aggression,  perfidy  and  blood. 
Resistance  to  such  a  people  is  obedience  to  God.     Whether, 
therefore,  we  pray  for  our  country  or  against  our  enemies, 
,\ye  are  praying  in  harmony  with  the  plans  of  Providence 
,;and  the  moral  interests  of  mankind. 

Again,  by  a  peculiar  casuistry  which  has  never  had  a 
•parallel  since  the  days  of  the  Pharisees,  the  Yankee  mind 
lias, inverted  the  order  of  heaven  and  taught  that  the  social 
status  of  the  negro  was  more  vital  to  him  and  to  them  tlnm 
;is  religious  privileges  or  moral  destiny,  and  to  establish 
his  theoretic  political  equality,  they  have  dissolved  the 
Union  and  drenched  the  land  in  blood.  .Self-conceited,  ex- 
acting, intolerant  intermeddlers,  what  have  they  achieved  ? 
Destroyed  (as  they  call  it)  the  best  government  in  the  world 
— tiie  asylum  of  the  oppressed  and  the  home  of  the  exile  ; 
lost  to  themselves  a  trade  on  which  they  had  fattened  for 
generations;  crippled,  stagnated  the  commerce  of  the 
world  ;  rilled  Europe  with  paupers;  buried  a  million  of 
their  soldiers ;  desolated  a  thousand  homes  and  a  hundred 
1  housfind  hearts;  seduced  or  stolen  as  yet  uncounted  slaves, 
!.'h1  left  them  to  starve  and  freeze  and  die.'4   These  heartless 


fanatics  who  howled  so  lugubriously  over  the  imaginary 
horrors  of  Southern  slavery,  look  now  with  cold  averted  eye 
upon  the  real  Bufferings  of  their  deluded  victims.  Hunger, 
nakedness,  ail  unsheltered  head,  disease,  death  by  the  slow 
tortures  of  cold  and  famine;  what  are  these  by  the  side 
of  emancipate 

( m  the  other  hand,  the,  negro  among  US  is  an  object  of 
respect,  affection  and  kindness,  in  every  stage  and  condition 
of  his  being.  His  religious  culture  is  generally  (would  u 
God  I  could  say  universally)  provided  for,  and  find  the  negro 
where  you  will,  in  the  wilds  of  Africa,  in  the  cities  where 
he  is  nominally  free,  in  all  that  constitutes  a  rational,  re- 
spectabh  >d,  the  Southern  slave  is  the  highest   type 

of  his  race.  Whatever  abuses  may  have  crept  in  and  what- 
Deglect  may  be  chargeable  upon  us,  if  we  compare 
results,  slavery  has  shown  itseli*  to  be  a  great  missioning 
iostitutio  .  i<  Southern  churches  count  more  converts 
among  tl  endants  of  Ham  than  the  united   efforts  of 

Christendom  have  gathered  upon  all  the  mission  fields  of  the 
heathen  world.  Even  in  Africa  itself,  the  most  intelligent, 
civilized  and  prosperous  community  is  composed  of  those 
who  were  trained  to  knowledge,  faith  and  virtue  under  the 
humanizing,  elevating  influence  of  slavery  in  these  South- 
ern States.  The  depositories  o)  a  high  and  holy  trust  in  the 
plans  oi'  Providence,  it  is  a  debt  we  owe  to  heaven,  to  re- 
sisl  unto  death  the  mad  schemes  of  our  enemies — schemes 
which  imply  a  blasphemous  impeachment  of  the  divine  ad- 
ministration, and  are  fraught  with  unutterable  woes  to  the 
beneficiaries  of  our  guardianship. 

The  ob  I  these  remarks  is  not  to  promote  pride, 

but  to  en  -  •  faith — not  to  hide  our  sins  by  magnifying 

the  sins  of  our  enemies,  but  to  inspire  hope  in  our  strug- 
gle, its  progress  and  its  issues.  Assembled  as  we  are  to 
make  si  •  God,  it   seemed  tome  appropriate  to 

show  by  the  previous  running  outline  of  facts,  that  we  ma; 
approach  the  mercy  seal   with  christian  liberty,  and   scrip- 
ly  look  for  the  divine  blee  to   our  arms 

ad  ountry. 

Wi  e  a  particular  analysis  of  the  text,  1 

propOSi  -  irener.il  ideas,  and  with  then. 

only    g  us  nationally.     The  terms  statutes  and 

toks  of  Moses,  and  al- 

atiou.     The   first 

!reraoni<  •  and  the  lat- 

and  all  matl  and 

Ctilious     i  of    the.     one    and 

to    be    Ll  I    and   glory   ol    the 

rish  people.  They  were  distinctly  taught  thai  their 
power  and  perp<  tuity  as  a  uatiou  depended,  n»»t  on  popula- 
tion, wealth  or  military  i  .  but  on  ■ 


s 

If  they  lived  in  harmony  with  their   covenant  relations  to 
liim,  He  was  to  provide  and  defend  and  make  them  numer- 
ous, powerful  and  enduring.     The  reputation  which  their 
great  law-giver  predicted  lor  them  as  resulting  from  their 
obedience,  was  amply  verified  in  the  verdict  of  the  nations.. 
They  were  distinguished  for  the  productions  of  their  lands,, 
for  God  multiplied  their  corn  and  wine  and  oil  ;  distinguish- 
ed for  their  prowess  in  arms,  for  they  were  victorious  over 
their  enemies,  and  subdued  the  nations  round  about  them  ;■; 
distinguished  for  their  civil  institutions,  for  while  these  were 
peculmr,  they  were  wonderfully  adapted  to  the  age  in  wfaieh 
they  lived,  and  to  the  different  orders  of  society  among  theimj 
distinguished  above  all  for  their  religious  worship.     Before 
the  exodus  from  Egypt  and  the  pattern  given    from  the 
mount,  the  worship   of  the  rest  of  mankind  was  wickedy 
obscene,  puerile,  and  even  ridiculous,  while  the  worship  of 
the  Jews,  understood  in  its  symbols  and  references,  was  ra- 
tional, conservative  and  elevating.     It  is  true  that  the  his- 
tory of  this  people  was  greatly  marred  by  perverseness  and 
rebellion  ;  yet  there  were  intervals  (and  these  were  longer 
than  a  careless  reader  of  the  Bible  would  suppose)  in  which 
they  walked  before  the  God  of  their  fathers  in   righteous- 
ness and  fidelity.     Then  they  prospered  ;  the  earth  yielded 
her  increase  by  Uandfulls ;  the  tribes  dwelt  in  peace  ;  the 
glory  of  God  inhabited  the  temple,  and  all  the  land  was 
blessed.     But  when  king,  or  priest,  or  people  corrupted  the 
worship  of  God,  departed  from  the  statutes  and  judgments 
of  the  divine  law,  then  a  prophet  was  raised  up  and  sent  ' 
to  rebuke  and  admonish.     If  they  repented  and  reformed, 
God  let  "  the  lifted  thunder  drop,"  and  made  peace  with 
his  people.    If  they  refused  and  rebelled,*then  came  drought, 
or  famine,  or  pestilence,  or  war  with  defeat  and  captivity. 
The  glory  of  the  nation  culminated  in   the  reign   of  Solo- 
mon, a  prince  for  whom  history  has  no  peer.     In  the  chron-  . 
icles  of  the  Kings  there  are  two  things  which  at  this,  time 
and  on  this  day  demand  our  special  attention.     I  refer  to- 
them  not  for  discussion  now,  but  as  stand  points  from  which 
to  advance  what  I  desire  to  say.     The  first  is  the  great  stress 
which  God  always  laid  upon  the  official,  national  recogni- 
tion of  his  rights  and  laws,  and  the  favor  he  always  showed 
to  those  rulers  who  honored  him  before  the  people  in  the 
administration  of  government.     So  vital  was  this  providen- 
tial rule  to  the  public  welfare,  and  so  honorable  to  the 
Deity  the  observance  of  it,  that  he  exempted  one  of  the 
doomed  family  of  "  Jeroboam,  the  son  of  Nebat,  who  made 
Israel  to  sin,"   from  the  common  destiny,  because  there 
"  was  some  good  thing  in  him  concerning  the  Lord  his  God." 
The  second  thing  is,  that  the  great  reforms  which  were  in- 
stituted from  time  to  time,  even  by  the  best  kings,  with 
one  or  two  exceptions,  were  neutralized  and  made  nugatory 


by  their  incompleteness.  When  the  king  and  the  people  went 
after  their  idols,  ami  licentiousness  swept  over  the  lnnd  like 
a  flood  and  '•  God  thundered  out  of  heaven  upon  them," 
then,  stricken,  terrified  and  bumbled,  they  turned  unto  the 
Lord.  The  temple  was  purified,  idols  destroyed,  the  groves 
cut  doWli,  ami,  by  royal  edict,  the  people  were  summoned 
to  a  great  national  lustration  ;  but  these  interesting  records 
nl ways  wind  up  with  the  significant  declaration,  "yet  the 
high  places  were  not  taken  aivay."  Without  stopping  to  ex- 
plain, historically  or  otherwise,  the  idea  conveyed  is  of  vast 
importance  to  us  in  the  present  stage  of  our  national  exis- 
tence. Between  these  "  high  places"  and  the  corruption  of 
government  and  religion  there  was  an  intimate  ami  insepar- 
able association.  It  not  related  as  cause  and  effect,  they 
were  ever  present  temptations,  furnishing  both  instruments 
and  opportunity  for  a  general  relapse  into  idolatry.  The 
power  of  habit,  temporarily  suspended  by  calamitous 
judgment,  never  failed  to  reassert  its  dominion,  and  these 
reprobated  remnants  of  past  degeneracy  were  convenient 
enticements.  To  sin  was  easy — cost  nothing,  neither  mo- 
i.cv  nor  labor.  The  instruments  were  ready  made  ;  time, 
place  and  circumstance  concurred,  and  the  easily  besetting 
sin  led  captive  a  willing  people.  The  curse  of  the  nation 
was,  that  with  all  their  reforms  and  purifications,  the  seeds 
of  evil  were  left,  and  in  due  course  of  events  germinated, 
grew  and  brought  forth  another  harvest  of  sin  and  woe  and 
death.  On  this  fast  day,  I  give  you  notice,  my  country- 
men, that  if  there  be  any  upas  tree  growing  in  the  circum- 
ference of  our  land,  planted  by  authority,  nurtured  by  pub- 
lic admiration,  we  need  not  think  to  destiny  its  pestiferous 
virus  by  gathering*its  foliage,  or  topping  its  branches,  albeit 
we  leave  nothing  but  its  naked  trunk,  for  through  "the 
scent  of  water,  it  will  bud  and  bring  forth  boughs  like  a 
plant."  If  we  would  breath  wholesome  air  and  live  un- 
>ned,  we  must  cut  down  flic  tree  and  dig  up  the  roots 
ami  bind  them  all  in  bundles  to  he  burned. 

To  bring  our  country  into  the  covert  of  God's  protecting 
power,  it  is  not  absolutely  necessary,  however  desirable, 
that  every  individual  should  adjust  his  moral  relations 
on  the  spelt     Hence,  while  I  mourn  the  sins 

which  abound  on  every  side,  i  shall  feel  safe  if  cur  n 
God  and  honor  his  Sabbaths — if  our  representative  bod- 
'gislal  e  in  harmony  with  the  di\  iiie  lav,  :  if  our  judiciary 
i,  a  terror  to  <  \  il  doers  and  a  praise  i(.  them 
do  well.     Li  i    v.  »rd,  plant  the  governn 
■.  talk  less  of  the  rights  of  the  people  an  !  more  about 
the  rights  of  God,  extirpate  the  3  which 

izi  d  soci<  .  v,  abolish  pan  ■  .  and   let  all 

ends  we  aim  aft  be   God  and  country  and   truth;  I 
•id  will  be  nigh  unto  US  in  all   wc  call  upon  him  tor.'' 


10 

By  our  secession  from  the  Union  and  the  inauguration  of 
a  new  government,  we  have  put  ourselves  in  position,  if  we 
are  wise  and  have  a  heart  for  the  work,  to  amend  what  was 
faulty  and  to  incorporate  not  only  new  safeguards  against 
the  abuse  of  power,  but  principles  conservative  of  law,  or- 
der and  morals.  Conceiving  this  to  be  a  good  time,  while 
the  public  mind  is  loosened  from  old  ideas  and  broken  up 
by  the  ploughshare  of  war,  for  casting  abroad  the  seeds  of 
truth,  I  avail  myself  of  the  occasion  to  make,  as  I  believe, 
an  important  suggestion  : 

On  the  ground  that  our  fathers  separated  Church  and 
State,  secured  freedom  of  conscience,  granted  toleration  to 
all  religions,  the  popular  inference  has  been  all  along  that 
we  were  a  christian  nation.  But  rightly  viewed,  the  facts 
do  not  justify  the  conclusion.  Indeed,  the  principles  af- 
firmed, considered  as  abstractions,  or  in  their  practical  effect 
upon  legislation  or  public  opinion,  ignore  all  reference  to 
God  and  his  law,  and  made  the  government  so  essentially 
secular,  political  and.  hitman,  as  virtually  to  assume  that 
God  had  no  rights  in  it — no  control  of  it,  and  that  to  work 
it  was  our  business,  while  the  Deity  was  more  appropriate- 
ly employed  in  another,  perhaps  a  higher  sphere.  Accord- 
ingly, in  the  Constitution  there  was  no  acknowledgment  of 
his  being  or  his  providence,  and  much  legislation  under  it 
was  directly  in  the  face  of  His  authority,  and  every  man 
had  a  right  to  be  as  wicked  and  mischievous  as  he  pleased. 

*  1  * 

Now,  I  am  neither  a  heretic  in  politics  nor  a  bjgot  in  reli- 
gion. I  do  nut  desire  to  see  the  Church,  my  own  or  any 
other,  established  by  the  State  ;  I  do  not  desire  that  the 
State  should  adopt  and  publish  a  creed  and  command 
everybody  to  believe  it  :  I  ask  for  no  inquisitions  into  any 
man's  private  opinions  or  practices  ;  I  want  no  tests  or 
oaths.  But  I  do  believe  that,  in  the  organic  law,  God 
should  be  acknowledged  in  his  being,  perfections,  provi- 
dence and  empire ;  not  as  the  fust  great  cause  simply,  that 
is  philosophy  ;  not  as  the  universal  father  of  a  world  of  de- 
pendent creatures;  that  is  poetry,  sentimentalism,  and  may 
be  nothing  more,  but  as  the  God  of  the  Bible,  Maker,  Pre- 
server, Governor,  Redeemer,  Judge,  Father,  Son  and  Holy 
Ghost.  The  theocracy  of  the  Jews,  though  not  prescribed 
as  a  model  lor  the  nations  of  the  earth,  was  intended  to  be 
the  type,  in  substance  if  not  in  form,  of  all  righteous  gov- 
ernment. In  the  progress  of  civilization  and  religion,  as  the 
world  approaches  the  grand  prophetic  period,  when  "truth 
shall  spring  out  of  the  earth  and  righteousness  shall  look 
down  from  heaven,"  the  governments  of  earth  will  ail  be 
assimilated  to  this  pattern.  In  confirmation  of  this  idea, 
it  is  already  true,  that  the  best  portions  of  the  civil  codes 
of  all  the  nations  of  Asia  and  Europe,  both  ancient  and 
modern,  were  borrowed  from  the  Mosaic  laws.     It  is  equal- 


11 

ly  true  of  ourselves.  The  Constitution  of  the  Confederate 
States  of  America  has  taken  one  step  in  the  right  direction, 
but  does  not  go  far  enough.  In  its  appeal  to  Almighty 
God,  it  uses  the  language  of  deism,  or  natural  religion, 
rather  than  of  Christianity.  It  does  not  honoi  Cod  as  he 
reveals  himself  in  those  relations  which  concern  us  most, 
and  by  which  the  Divine  glory  is  most  illustriously  declared. 
Cod  magnifies  his  word  above  all  His  name,  but  there  is  no 
.illusion  to  it.  "God  is  in  Christ  reconciling  the  world  un- 
to himself."  "  All  things  were  made  by  Him  and  for  Him," 
and  yet  he  is  :>or  confessed.  Now,  as  a  christian  people, 
accrediting  the  Bible  as  a  revelation  from  Cod,  I  think  there 
ought  to  be  in  our  Constitution  a  distinct  recognition  of  the 
christian  religion.  The  moral  character  of  a  nation  in  the 
Divine  estimate,  depends  largely  upon  public  national  acts. 
Hence,  1  attach  great  importance  to  these  national  fasts. 
Though  many  may  neglect,  some  treat,  them  with  contempt, 
yet,  proceeding  from  elected  rulers,  the  representatives  of 
the  people,  they  characterize  the  country.  They  are  sol- 
emn official  exponents  oi«  religious  faith  and  sentiment, 
which  \Ve  learn  from  the  condescending  expressions  of  the 
Divine  word  are  acceptable  to  God.  If  our  rulers  nev- 
er called  us  to  these  acts  of  self-denial,  confession  and 
intercession,  the  thousands  of  praying  people  over  the  land 
could  not  save  the  government  from  the  odium  of  atheism 
oi-  infidelity.  And  it  the  instrument  under  which  we  or- 
ganize the  Confederacy  is  ominously  silent  on  a  question  so 
vital  as  Christianity,  what  can  we,  what  can  the  world  infer 
hut  hostility  or  indifference?  Either  would  provoke  the 
Divine  displeasure  and  limit,  if  not  forfeit,  the  Divine  bles- 
sing. While  Noah,  Job  and  Daniel,  if  they  were  living, 
Might  not  and  could  nor  prevail  to  save  from  overthrow  an 
infidel,  godless  government — ..  government  which  honors 
Jiod  and  Christianity — sets  itself  to  execute  His  will  in  ii* 
legitimate  sphere,  becomes  the  "  minister  of  ( ind  for  good," 
and  uevi  policy  or  expediency  a  plea  for  unright- 

eous, impious  legislation,  may  inherit  the  protection  ot  hea- 
ven,  despite  the   individual   transgressions  of  the  people. 
This  is  the  lesson  of  history   both  sacred  and  profane.     Bo 
lieving,  as  I  do,  that   God  has  committed  to  us  the  christ- 
ianizution  of  the   African  race,  it  is  specially  harmonious 
with  this  high  and  holy  trust,  that   we   invoke   and    set 
the  divine  favor  by  a  solemn  acknowledgment  of  His  vv< 
as  well  as  'lis  providence.     God  has  identified  his  name 
credit  among  men  with  Christianity  ,      [|  is  Bill  i  and 

his  power.     Before  a  human  breath  had  broken  the  solil 
of  eternal  nothingness,  solved   in  the   iul 

mind.  In  this  glorious  conception  of  the  Godhead, 
universe  was  cradled.  Creation  with  it*  astronomic,  \ 
deis.  the  earth  with  it.-<  mountains  piled  in  i:  ajestj  .     - 


12 

spread  outin  beauty,  its  seas  rolling  in  grandeur,  was  intended 
as  the  theatre  for  its  display.  The  genealogic  line  of  ante- 
diluvian patriarchs  was  recorded  in  sacred  story,  and  perpet- 
uated in  the  family  of  Noah  for  this.  For  this,  Abraham 
was  called  from  Ur  of  the  Chaldees,  made  the  depository  of 
truth  and  the  father  of  a  great  nation.  Around  this  off- 
spring of  the  Divine  mind,  inspiration  has  clustered  the 
marvelous  annals  of  the  Israelitish  people,  and  maintained 
the  royal  seed  of  David's  line  in  the  house  of  Judah  till 
Shiloh  came.  The  advent  of  the  Son  of  God  was  the  ful- 
fillment of  prophecy  and  promise,  and  when  the  chosen 
race  "  despised  and  rejected  him,"  wrath  came  upon  them 
to  the  uttermost.  Through  provocations  innumerable,  the 
nation  was  preserved  in  fulfillment  of  the  Scriptures, 
for  the  introduction  of  Christianity.  Their  malicious  unbe- 
lief, their  insulting  scorn  of  Christ  was  the  signal  for  their 
overthrow  and  dispersion.  Even  now  these  tribes  "  of  the 
wandering  foot  and  weary  breast,"  though  scattered  and  peel- 
ed, are  kept  distinct,  unmingled,  a  miraculous  demonstra- 
tion of  the  truth  of  God  and  'the  fearful  guilt  of  making 
light  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth/  Wherever  you  find  a  Jew,  on 
the  banks  of  the  Ganges  or  the  Tiber,  the  Thames  or  the 
Rhine,  the  Jordan  or  the  Mississippi,  you  behold  a  living 
witness  of  God's  primitive  justice  in  the  defense  of  the 
christian  religion.  His  isolation,  loneliness  and  perpetuity 
is  at  once  a  miracle  and  a  seal  which  find  their  explanation 
in  the  threatenings  of  the  past  and  the  prophecies  of  the 
future.  He  has  survived  the  faggot  and  the  sword,  Papal 
persecution  and  Moslem  barbarism,  the  reproach  of  nations 
and  the  waste  of  ages,  on  purpose  to  be  at  last  the  crown- 
ing trophy  of  the  all-conquering  cross. 

The  vast  extent  and  unity  of  the  Roman  empire  is  an  his- 
toric fact  which  has  its  solution  in  the  plans  of  God  for  the 
easy  and  rapid  circulation  of  Christianity.  But  when  the 
truth  had  triumphed  over  the  throne  of  the  Caesars  and  the 
church  of  God  had  been  corrupted  by  power  and  pride  and 
numbers,  by  another  touch  of  the  linger  of  Providence,  this 
colossal  dominion  fell  to  rise  no  more.  Its  disruption  by  the 
Northern  hordes  was  another  step  in  the  solemn  march  of 
history  towards  the  grand  issue  which  regulates  the  dealings 
of  God  with  men  and  nations,  even  the  honor  of  the  cross 
and  the  diffusion  of  Christianity.  If  we  scan  the  shadows 
which  ilicker  over  the  tablets  of  the  past,  or  search  amid 
the  cemeteries  of  fallen  dynasties  and  buried  empires,  or  if 
we  trace  the  path  of  revolution  and  commerce  and  guage 
:lie  comparative  strength  of  pagan  and  christian  govern- 
ments, everywhere, — always  alike,  in  the  epitaph  of  the 
dead  and  in  the  annals  of  the  living,  we  read  the  same  great 
historic  lesson — lCthau  that  honor  mc  T  will  honor  and  they  that 
x  will  be  lightly  esteemed."     Oh!  if  we   would    be  "a. 


13 

wise  and  understanding  people" — ;'a  great  nation — having 
God  nigh  unto  us  in  all  that  we  call  upon  him  for,"  let  us 
avow  our  faith  in  his  revelation,  identify  our  government 
with  his  honor  and  commit  our  interests  to  the  power  that 
is  pledged  to  perpetuate  the  church  and  to  insure  her  do- 
minion. Then  amid  tee  rise  and  fall  of  kingdoms  and  all 
the  mutations  of  time,  our  republic  shall  embody  one  ele- 
ment— pine — true— eternal,  an  element  which  shall  ally  us 
in  friendship  with  Heaven  and  stamp  upon  all  our  prosperi- 
ty, the  seal  of  the  divine  blessing. 

To  avoid  controversy — to  forestall  objection,  I  would  be 
content  if  the  framers  of  our  constitution  in  their  appeal  to 
God,  would  designate  the  Almighty  as  Father,  Sox  and 
Holy  GHOST,  because  these  names  imply  all  that  is  distinc- 
tive and  peculiar  in  the  christian  scheme.  This  demand  is 
neither  extravagant  nor  sectarian,  and  even  though  it  might 
be  regarded  by  some  as  a  concession  to  the  church  yet  it  is 
as  little  as  a.  christian  people  could  consistently  ask  or  a 
professedly  christian  government  expect  to  grant.  The 
promises  of  God  to  the  church  are  sublime.  She  is  advan- 
cing to  her  glorious  destiny.  To  her  friends  Heaven 
pledges  all  that  is  valuable  in  time  or  desirable  in  eternity. 
As  a  patriot  and  a  christian,  I  desire  for  myself,  mv  children 
and  my  countrymen,  the  sheltering  a^gis  of  Almighty  God 
— the  benediction  of  His  only  begotten  Son — the  sanctify- 
ing ministry  of  the  Eternal  Spirit. 

In  the  same  general  line  of  thought,  I  must  remind  vou, 
that  it  will  prove  us  to  be  ''a  wise  and  understanding  peo- 
ple" to  make  the  Bible  the  basis  and  the  rule  of  all  of  our 
legislation.  The  "statutes  and  judgments"  of  the  law  are 
righteous,  founded  in  the  nature  of  God  and  man  and  were 
intended  to  preserve  the  rights  of  the  one  and  to  promote 
the  interest*  of  the  other.  The  truth  is  that  no  law,  paren- 
tal— scholastic — municipal  or  civil  can  bind  the  conscience 
and  command  the  sanctions  of  Providence  except  as  it  is  de- 
rived from  and  enforced  by  the  supreme  will  of  God.  His 
law  is  the  foundation  ot  all  government — the  measure  of  all 
authority.  To  contravene  it,  on  any  pretext  of  policy  or 
convenience  or  caprice  is  wicked,  presumptuous,  disastrous 
to  the  best  interests  of  society,  and  to  that  extent  puts  us 
beyond  the  pale  of  promised  support  and  protection.  The 
divine  "commandment  is  exceeding  broad"  spreading  over 
the  whole  field  of  human  action — following  man  into  all  the 
relations  of  life,  private  and  public,  constituting  the  only 
real  charter  of  his  rights  and  privileges  and  all  enactments 
granting  him  larger  liberties,  invade  the  jurisdiction  of  God 
and  drop  poison  into  the  hidden  wells  of  society.  Every 
departure  from  the  great  fundamental  principles  of  right 
and  justice,  as  embodied  in  the  divine  statutes  and  judg- 
ments, demoralizes  community — multiplies  offences — embar- 


14 

rasses  government,  offends,  and,  if  I  may  so  say,  alienates  the 
Lord  Almighty. 

A  faithful  comparison  of  our  legislation  with  the  word  of 
the  Lord  would  reveal  many  discrepancies  and  some  down- 
right conflicts.  No  man  can  read  the  Bible  without  being 
impressed  with  the  fact,  that  in  the  divine  estimation — "to 
profane  the  Sabbath"  is  a  high  misdemeanor,  indeed  a  mor- 
tal sin.  I  shall  not  now  attempt  to  show  the  preeminent 
importance  of  the  christian  Sabbath,  its  indispensable  re- 
lations in  the  government  of  God,  its  value  as  a  day  of  rest 
to  man  and  beast,  nor  its  conneeriou  with  parental  duty  and 
the  worship  of  the  sanctuary.  I  rest  the  doctrine,  on  the 
naked  command — "remember  the  Sabbath  day  to  keep  it 
holy"  when  I  say  that  every  legislative  enactment  which 
requires  or  sanctions  its  violation  ought  to  be  repealed.  No 
man  has  the.  right  to  appropriate  it  to  a  secular  use  ;  no  cor- 
poration can  do  it,  without  guilt,  and  all  the  people  togeth- 
er, cannot  delegate  to  their  representatives  the  right  to  set 
it  aside  or  in  any  wise  lower  its  claims.  Say  what  you 
please — bring  up  your  strong  reasons—exhaust  the  argu- 
ment— when  the  debate  is  ended  there  stands — the  fourth 
commandment  unrepealed — with  the  thunder  of  Sinai  in  its 
hand  and  the  penal  sanctions  of  eternity  at  its  back.  There 
it  stands,  vindicated,  in  the  providence  of  God,  in  the  curse 
of  the  nations  who  have  profaned  it  and  re-enacted  in  the 
blessings  which  swarm  around  its  sanctification.  To  collate 
and  comment  upon  the  many  passages  of  Holy  writ  which 
set  forth  the  claims  of  this  hallowed  day  and  illustrate  the 
divine  administration  in  reference  to  it  would  be  inadmissi- 
ble now.  The  continued  persistent  testimony  of  the  Bible 
and  Providence  in  favor  of  the  Sabbath  shut  us  up  to  the 
duty  of  hallowing  the  day  and  sweeping  the  statute  book 
of  all  opposing  enactments  or  plunging  with  open  eyes  and 
unbared  bosom  upon  "the  thick  bosses  of  Jehovah's  buck- 
ler." 

There  is  another  statute  of  Georgia  adverse  as  I  believe 
to  the  will  of  God  and  the  true  interests  of  humanity.  1 
mean  the  law  which  forbids  us  to  teach  our  negroes  to  read. 
This  enactment  invades  the  rights  of  the  master  and  the 
privileges  of  the  slave.  It  is  the  master's  duty  to  teach  his 
servants,  as  well  as  his  children,  the  doctrines  and  morals  of. 
our  holy  religion,  and  the  slave  is  entitled  to  the  advantages 
in  the  use  of  which  he  may  learn  to  offer  to  his  Maker  a  ra- 
tional and  acceptable  worship.  Our  Heavenly  Father  cer- 
tainly never  intended  any  human  mind  to  be  kept  in  dark- 
ness and  ignorance.  The  negro  is  an  immortal  being  and 
it  is  his  right  by  the  law  of  creation  and  the  purchase  of 
redemption  to  read  for  himself  the  epistles  of  his  Redeemer's 
love.  If  the  institution  of  slavery  cannot  be  maintained 
except  at  the  expense  of  the  black  man's  immortal  interests, 


15 

in  the  name  of  Heaven  I  say — let  it  perish.  I  know  the  cir- 
cumstances out  of  which  our  unfortunate  legislation  sprung. 
It  was  partly  retaliatory,  in  rebuke  of  the  incendiary 
publications  of  the  North  and  partly  precautionary  on  pru- 
dential grounds.  But  the  logic  of  the  law  is  as  bad  as  the 
law  itself.  To  make  the  negro  sutler  for  the  sins  of  the 
Yankee,  is  the  grossest  injustice  and  yet  this  is  the 
practical  effect  of  our  law.  As  a  prudential  policy  it  is  foun- 
ded upon  a  false  idea.  Knowledge  so  far  from  gendering 
insubordination  will  promote  the  loyalty  of  our  colored  pop- 
ulation. Let  them  learn  from  the  scripture  that  their  rela- 
tion is  ordained  of  God — that  He  prescribes  their  duties  and 
makes  fidelity  to  their  earthly  masters  a  part  of  the  service 
due  to  Him,  our  hands  will  be  strengthened — our  mouths 
tilled  with  argument  and  we  shall  put  to  s'lence  the  igno- 
rance of  foolish  men.  A  Bible  in  every  cabin  will  be  the 
best  police  oi  the  country,  and  despite  the  ravings  of  a- brain- 
less fanaticism,  subjection  and  order  will  reign  throughout 
our  land.  Thinking  as  I  do  that  one  of  the  moral  ends  of 
this  \v;u  is  to  reform  the  abuses  of  slavery,  I  ought  to  add 
that  all  laws  and  parts  of  laws  which  authorize  or  allow 
arbitrary  interference  with  the  connubial  relations  of  slaves, 
ought  to  be  rescinded.  It  is  due  to  humanity — to  the  great 
law  of  reciprocal  affection,  to  the  will  of  God.  ""What 
(iod  hath  joined  together  let  no  man  put  asunder."  The 
truth  is,  that  on  this  whole  subject,  public  opinion,  legis- 
lative enactment  and  judicial  administration  are  all  too  lib- 
eral and  too  loose.  The  New  Testament  allows  divorce  on- 
lv  for  onfi  cause  ;  our  Code  grants  it,  on  application  for  al- 
most any  showing.  A  law  providing  for  separation  in  cer- 
tain extreme  cases,  without  the  privilege  of  marrying  again 
would  promote  the  peace  of  many  families  and  prevent  the 
ruptures  in  many  more  But  in  relation  to  slaves  we  have 
no  law  at  all.  The  whole  question  isopen.  Husbands  and 
wives  are  subject  to  all  the  contingencies  of  time  and  cir- 
cumstances— of  gain  and  avarice — of  passion  and  caprice, 
of  the  law  of  inheritance  whether  regulated  by  testament 
or  appraisement.  Verily  "these  things  ought  not  so  to  be." 
1;  is  all  wrong.  A  stigma  upon  our  civilization  and  an 
oifHse  to  our  Christianity.  Here  then  upon  our  knees  be- 
fore High  Heaven  let  us  vow  to  reform.  Yes  my  country- 
men, let  us  do  right — fear  (rod  ami  keep  his  commandments. 
Let  us  puJLslayery  upon  its  scriptural  basis — eliminate  i;  i 
long  tolerated  abuses,  deteifd  it  nor,  only  by  force  of  arms 
but  by  proving  to  the  world  that  it  is  the  great  conservator 
of  republican  government,  ami  that  it  is  really  ci>nsi- 
with  the  highest  development  ami  the  greatest  happiness  of 
tie'  negro    race.      I    will    not  g<>  further    ini,i.   «!.•(  ails.      i. 

e  snllice.     "Keep  therefore  ami  do  ilnm.  for  thy  s  your  wis- 
dom and  Understanding  >,n  the  sight  of  the  bo/w/m." 


16 

Having  said  this  much  about  setting  the  government 
right  before  God  and  His  law,  it  will  be  appropriate  in  con- 
clusion to  remind  you,  that  while  we  fast  and  pray,  it  will 
be  acceptable  to  God  and  of  service  to  our  beloved  country 
to  confess  and  forsake  our  own  sins.  God's  blessing  may 
rest  upon  a  christian  government  while  yet  He  chastises  the 
guilty  people  for  their  transgressions.  We  are  passing 
through  a  terrble  ordeal.  Some  sad  and  sickening  devel- 
opments have  been  made.  Heaven  has  blessed  us  generally 
with  fruitful  seasons  and  bounteous  harvests  but  we  are  sac- 
rificing them  to  our  lusts.  Restlessness  and  discontent  pre- 
vail. Because  of  swearing  the  land  mourneth.  The  love 
of  money  which  is  the  root  of  all  evil,  abounds,  runs  wild 
— grows  reckless,  almost  ferocious.  Extortion,  pitiless  ex- 
tortion is  making  havoc  in  the  laud.  We  are  devouring 
each  other.  Avarice,  with  full  barns  puts  the  bounties  of 
Providence  under  bolts  and  bars,  waiting  with  eager  long 
ings  for  higher  prices.  The  widow's  wail  and  childhood's 
cry  fall  upon  his  ear,  unheeded.  The  soldier's  wife  shivers 
in  her  cabin  and  moistens  her  crust  with  her  tears,  but  the 
griping,  grasping  monster  waits  ior  a  darker  hour  to  make 
sure  he  loses  not  a  dime  of  her  little  all.  The  greed  of  gain, 
the  lowest,  meanest,  infirmity  of  the  human  mind  stalks 
among  us,  unabashed  by  the  heroic  sacrifices  of  our  women 
or  the  gallant  deeds  of  our  soldiers.  Speculation  in  salt  and 
bread  and  meat  runs  riot  in  defiance  ot  the  thunders  of  the 
pulpit, — executive  interference,  and  the  horrors  of  threat- 
ened famine.  Factories,  (though  there  are  some  noble  ex- 
ceptions) as  if  Providence  were  a  partner  likeminded  with 
them  and  had  brought  on  the  calamities  of  the  country  for 
their  benefit,  are  making  fortunes  from  the  blood  of  the 
brave  and  the  sighs  of  the  innocent  and  lovely.  Scorning 
the  currency  of  the  country  they  demand  provision  for  their 
manufactures,  and  conscious  of  power  over  the  necessities 
of  the  people,  they  fix  the  price  of  one,  lower  than  justice 
can  approve,  and  of  the  other,  higher  than  patriotism  would 
take.     In  these  respects  we  are  going    from    bad  to  worse. 

These  are  the  clouds  upon  our  sky  big  with  the  rain  of 
grief  and  wee.  God  helping  us  we  can  manage  the  enemies 
that  come  to  us  with  arms  in  their  hands,  but  how  we  are 
to  escape  these  frogs  of  Egypt— these  all  devouring  locusts 
that  come  up  into  our  houses,  our  beds — our  kneading 
troughs,  is  more  than  I  can  tell.  In  answer  to  prayer  this 
day,  oh  Lord  God  abate  the  plague  and  save  us  from  vio- 
lence without  and  selfishness  within. 

Men  and  brethren,  if  we  would  help  our  imperilled  coun- 
try, let  us  cultivate  personal  piety — live  nearer  to  God  our- 
selves and  promote  religion  in  our  neighborhoods  by  our 
labors,  our  example  and  our  piayers.  Let  us  set  our  faces 
against  all  injustice,   oppression    aniL  wrong.     Remember 


17 

the  poor  and  needy.     Let  us   stand   by  our   govermn*«& — 
our  army — our   independence,    by  confidence,    encowagt-- 
rnent  and  every  necessary  sicrifice.     With  a   christian  €««►- 
stitution — a  faithful   administration — amoral  ano!  reKgaras- 
people  we  may  look  for  peace  ere   long — an   honorable  a»~ 
tionality — a  long    bright    career  in    which  our  prosf* 
shall  be  durable  as  the  stars  of  heaven  and  abundant  as 
waves  of  the  sea. 


THE  RAINBOW  ROUND   THE  THRONE;  OR 
JUDGMENT  TEMPERED  WITH  MERCY, 


A  DISCOURSE 

BEFORE  THE    LEGISLATURE  OF  GEORGIA, 

DELIVERED  OX  THE  DAY  OF 
FASTING,  HUMILIATION  AND  PRAYER, 

APPOirfT.KI>  by  tisi: 

PRESIDENT 

or    Tin-: 

CONFEDERATE  STATES  OF  AMERICA, 

MARCH  27tii,  18G3. 
By  B.  M,   PALMER,  D.  D„ 

OP  NEW  ORLEANS,  La. 


SJOUGIITON.  NISBET  &  BARSBS,  Srut   rms-iK**. 

■  ILLKDGIVILLl,     <**■ 


PROCLAMATION  BY  THE  PRESIDENT. 

It  is  meet  that,  as  a  people  who  acknowledge  the  supre- 
macy of  the  living  God,  we  should  be  ever  mindful  of  our 
dependence  on  Him  ;  should  remember  that  to  Him  alone 
can  we  trust  for  our  deliverance  ;  that  to  Him  is  due  de- 
vout thankfulness  for  the  signal  mercies  bestowed  on  us,  and 
that  by  prayer  alone  can  we  hope  to  secure  the  continued 
manifestation  of  that  protecting  care  which  has  hitherto 
shielded  us  in  the  midst  of  trials  and  dangers. 

In  obedience  to  His  precepts,  we  have  from  time  to  time 
been  gathered  together  with  prayers  and  thanksgiving,  and 
He  has  been  graciously  pleased  to  hear  our  supplications, 
and  to  grant  abundant  exhibitions  of  His  favor  to  our  ar- 
mies and  our  people.  Through  many  conflicts  we  have  now 
attained  a  place  among  the  nations  which  commands  their 
respect;  and  to  the  enemies  who  encompass  us  around  and 
seek  our  destruction,  the  Lord  of  Hosts  has  again  taught 
the  lesson  of  His  inspired  word,  that  the  battle  is  not  to 
the  strong,  but  to  whomsoever  He  willeth  to  exalt.  • 

Again  our  enemy,  with  loud  boasting  of  the  power  of 
their  armed  men  and  mailed  ships,  threaten  us  with  subju- 
gation, and  with  evil  machinations  seek,  even  in  our  own 
homes  and  at  our  own  firesides,  to  pervert  our  men  servants 
and  our  maid  servants  into  accomplices  of  their  wicked  de- 
signs. 

Under  these  circumstances,  it  is  my  privilege  to  invite 
3'ou  once  more  to  meet  together  and  to  prostrate  yourselves 
in  humble  supplication  to  Him  who  has  been  'our  constant 
and  never  failing  support  in  the  past,  and  to  whose  protec- 
tion and  guidance  we  trust  for  the  future. 

To  this  end  I,  Jefferson  Davis,  President  of  the  Confed- 
erate States  of  America,  do  issue  this,  my  proclamation, 
setting  apart  Friday,  the  twenty-seventh  day  of  March,  as  a 
day  of  lasting,  humiliation  and  prayer,  and  I  do  invite  the 
people  of  the  said  States  to  repair  on  that  day  to  their  usual 
places  of  public  worship,  and  to  join  in  prayer  to  Almighty 
God  that  He  will  continue  His  merciful  protection  over 
our  cause,  that  He  will  scatter  our  enemies  and  set  at 
naught  their  evil  designs,  that  He  will  graciously  restore  to 
our  beloved  country  the  blessings  of  peace  and  security. 

In  faith  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand,  at  the 
city  of  Richmond,  on  the  twenty-seventh  day  of  February, 
in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and 
sixty-three.  JEFFERSON  DAVIS. 

By  the  President : 

J.  P.  Benjamin,  Secretary  of  State. 


SERMON. 

And  beholl  tr.  throne  wis  Bet  in  Heaven,  and  one  Bat  on  the  throne.  And  ho 
I  liat  Bat  wis  to  look  upon  like  si  jasper  and  n  sardine  stone  :  and  there  was  a  rainbow 
round  about  Hie  throne,  in  Bight  like  onto  an  Emerald"— Revelation,  \tk  chap.  '2,  -i 
verses. 

It  should  not  surprise  us  that  the  New  Testament  canon, 
like  that  of  the  Old,  closes  with  prophecy,  which  spans  in- 
deed the  whole  arch  of  human  history.  Springing  from  the 
bosom  of  the  first  promise  which  broke  upon  .the  despair  of 
man  after  the  fall,  it  spread  the  bow  of  hope  over  forty  cen- 
turies until  the  appearance  of  the  woman's  seed.  From 
the  Redeemers  cross,  as  a  new  salient  point,  it  again  over- 
leaps intervening  ages  till  in  the  glories  of  the  second 
advent,  history  shall  reach  its  consummation,  and  time  itself 
shall  be  no  more.  John,  the  last  of  the  Hebrew  seers,  is 
accordingly  shutout  from  men  to  see  visions  of  God,  in  the 
isle  of  Patmos.  Through  a  series  of  prophetic  symbols,  he 
depicts  the  fortunes  of  the  church,  her  final  triumph,  and 
the  destruction  with  which  her  adversaries  shall  be  consum- 
ed. The  book  of  Revelation  therefore  affords  a  rude  out- 
line of  the  history  of  mankind  ;  so  far,  at  least,  as  this  is 
implicated  La  the  progress  of  the  church.  Antecedent  how- 
ever to  these  disclosures,  a  view  is  first  afforded  of  God  up- 
on his  throne,  invested  with  awful  majesty  and  power.  A 
door  was  opened  in  heaven  ;  mid  behold,  a  throne  and  one 
seated  upon  it,  whom  the  entranced  Prophet  is  not  permit- 
ted to  describe  save  under  the  allegorical  symbols  of  the 
jasper  and  the  sardine  stone.  These  represent  those  Di- 
vine perfections,  which  are  conspicuously  illustrated  in  the 
government  of  the  Universe  :  the  blood-red  color  of  the 
sardine  symbolizing  that  retributive  justice,  which  vindi- 
cates the  majesty  of  .the  Divine  law  through  the  punish- 
ment of  the  transgressor — and  the  jasper,  clear  as  crystal, 
as  appropriately  typifying  the  matchless  purity  and  holiness 
of  God.  which  is  his  glory. 

But  the  most  remarkable  feature  in  this  scene  is  "the  rain- 
bow round  about  the  throne,"  with  its  predominant  green 
so  refreshing  to  the»eye,  "in  sight  like  unto  an  Emerald." 
This  symbol,  purely  historical  "in  its  character,  admits  a  more 
certain  interpretation  than  the  two  which  preceded.  You 
remember  that  after  the  deluge  God  set  his  how  in  the 
clouds,  a  sign  of  the  covenant  into  which  he  had  entered 
with  Noah,  the  second  father  of  our  race,  and  a  seal  of  the 
promise  that  he  would  not  again  destroy  the  Earth,  with  a 
ll«>od.  From  that  day,  the  rainbow  has  been  recognized  as 
problem  of  mercy,  and  of  mercy  returning  after  judg- 
ment. The  import  of  this  remarkable  vision  is  therefore 
easily  deduced.  Before  opening  the  seals  and  sounding  the 
trumpets  in  which  the  whole  hit  are  administration  of  Pro- 
vidence is  implicitly  contained,  the  Prophet  is    called  to  be- 


a 


90 

hold  Jehovah  a?  a  God  of  law,  yet  ruling  in  mercy  ; — seat- 
ed indeed  upon  the  throne  and  displaying  the  symbols  of 
his  righteous  supremacy,  yet  ruling  beneath  the  sign  of  the 
covenant  which  pledges  to  sinful  man  his  compassion  and 
his  grace.  It  is  therefore  not  a  government  of  naked  and 
absolute  law  which  John  is  commissioned  to  unfold  ;  but 
of  law  as  it  is  tempered  by  grace  ;  and  we  utterly  fail  to 
understand  the  dealings,  of  God  with  the  human  race,  if  we 
overlook  either  of  the  two  elements  of  justice  and  of  grace, 
which  enter  as  factors  in  the  whole  economy  of  Providence. 

No  topic  seems  to  me,  my  Hearers,  more  appropriate  to 
the  solemnities  of  this  national  fast  than  this  commingling 
of  mercy  with  judgment  in  the  administration  of  God's 
government  over  men  :  a  topic  lull  of  consolation  in  the 
darkness  of  the  present  hour,  whose  timely  exhibition  may 
perhaps  serve  to  check  those  extreme  and  despondent  fears 
which  a  too  exclusive  view  of  our  sinfulness  as  a  people 
cannot  fail  to  arouse.  But  as  the  comfort  it  may  impart 
depends  upon  our  conviction  of  its  truth,  I  must  be  allowed 
to  establish  it  as  a  doctrine,  before  attempting  to  infer  the 
support  which  it  brings  to  our  young  and  struggling  nation. 
1.  In  the  jirsi  place  ihen.it  is  involved  in  the  'primary  fact  that 
God's  special  purpose  in  the  creation  of'  man  is  to  illustrate 
through  him  the  riches  of  his  grace. 

It  were  idle  to  conjecture  how  many  orders  of  intelligi- 
gent  beings  God  may  have  created,  to  inhabit  the  innumer- 
able worlds  which  science  reveals  to  us  distributed  through 
the  immensity  of  space.  Nor,  were  this  even  known,  were 
we  furnished  with  information  of  the  conditions  under 
which  they  live,  nor  of  the  modifications  of  the  one  eternal 
law  by  which  it  is  adapted  to  their  peculiar  characters  and 
circumstances.  Such  speculations  are  as  unnecessary  as 
they  are  rash.  The  scriptures  plainly  reveal  the  existence  of 
two  distinct  classes  of  created  beings,  and  sufficiently  un- 
fold the  purposes  they  subserve  in  the  comprehensive 
ecouom}'  of  the  Divine  government.  The  destiny  of  angels 
stands  closely  associated  with  the  honor  which  God 
secures  to  himself  through  the  administration  of  sim- 
ple law,  while  the  history  of  man  equally  developes  the  rich- 
es of  the  Divine  love  and  stance.  In  regard  to  the  former. 
there  is  no  room  for  mistake.  I  need  not  remind  you  that 
law  consists  essentially  of  two  parts — the  precept  which 
guides,  and  the  penalty  which  binds.  The  precept  comes, 
first  in  the  order  of  thought,  and  with  its  unerring  finger 
points  out  the  course  which  it  becomes  the  creature  to  pur- 
sue. It  states  with  infallible  precision  the  relation  of  the 
subject  to  the  law-giver  and  the  claims  of  the  latter  upon  the 
service,  worship  and  love  of  the  former.  Then  follows  the 
penalty,  as  the  exponent  of  the  Divine  authority,  and  binds 
these  duties  upon  the  conscience.  The  two  cannot  be  sep- 
arated without  destroying  our  very  conception  of  law.     For 


if  the  penalty  be  removed,  the  precept  degenerates  at  one*' 
into  mere  counsel  or  advice  :  or  if  the  precept  be  withdrawn, 
the  penalty  sinks  down  into  a  blind  and  arbitrary  threat. 
It  is  the  union  of  the  two  which  constitutes  the  formal  na- 
ture of  law.  Now  precisely  corresponding  with  this  dis- 
tinction in  the  law  itself,  we  have  two  classes  of  angels, 
whose  whole  destiny  is  respectively  linked  to  one  or  the  other 
of  these  two  elements.  The  Holy  angels,  who  passed  success- 
fully through  their  period  of  probation  and  are  now  con- 
firmed indelectibly  in  blessedness  forever,  illustrate  the  glo- 
ries of  the  law  as  these  are  reflected  through  a  sinless  and 
perfect  obedience  of  the  precept;  while  the  fallen  angels, 
who  first  raised  the  standard  of  revolt  in  Heaven  and-were 
hurled  from  their  several  thrones  into  the  abyss  of  hell. 
shall  forever  illustrate  the  terrors  of  that  curse  which  is  de- 
nounced against  transgression.  The  whole  history,  both  of 
the  one  class  and  of  the  other,  is  an  eternal  exposition  of 
the  law,  practically  exemplyfying  the  results  both  of  obe- 
dience and  of  sin.  No  purpose  was  ever  formed  in  the 
counsels  of  God  for  the  restoration  <>i  such  as  are  fallen  ; 
no  sacrifice  ever  smoked  upon  the  divine  altar  for  the  expia- 
tion o(  their  guilt  :  no  offer  of  pardon  even  solicited  them 
to  the  exercise  of  repentance  :  no  Divine  spirit  ever  breath- 
ed upon  them  in  their  trespasses  aud-sins,  quickening  them 
into  life  :  but  "having  left  their  own  habitation,  they  are  re- 
served in  everlasting  chains,  under  darkness,  to  the  judg- 
ment of  the  great  day." 

A  sufficient  exemplification  being  once  made  of  the  majes- 
ty and  glory  of  naked  and  absolute  law,  the  infinite  God 
was  under  no  necessity  of  repeating  Himself;  and  a  very 
different  purpose  is  accordingly  disclosed  in  the  creation  and 
history  of  mankind.  The  superscription  over  this  dispensa- 
tion is  Love  :  "for  God  so  loved  the  world  that  he  gave  his 
only  begotten  Son  that  whosoever  believoth  in  him  should 
not  perish  but  have  everlasting  life  ;"  and  the  song  of  the 
redeemed  forever  in  Heaven  is  chanted  "unto  Him  that 
loved  as  and  washed  ns  from  our  sins  in  Ilis  own  blood." 
The  whole  record,  as  begun  in  time  and  continued  through- 
out the  ages  of  the  future,  is  a  record  of  infinite  and  sover- 
eign love.  As  through  a  dispensation  of  mere  law  over 
the  angels,  God  discovered  to  the  universe  his  holiness,  jus- 
tice, and  truth,  so  by  his  method  of  grace  towards  man  he 
opens  the  treasures  of-his  infinite  heart,  disclosing  the 
depths  of  his  tenderness,  his  boundless  compassion,  his  in- 
conceivable mercy  and  grace.  It  is  then  fore  a  more  inte- 
rior display  of  the  Divine  perfections  than  had  before  bi 
made — the  climax  to  that  revelation  of  his  power  and  God- 
head which  was  written  on  the  frame  of  nature,  and  the 
complement  of  that  which  was  engcaved  on  the  tables  of 
the  law.  "Tin;  mystery,  which  from  the  beginning  of  the 
world  had  been    hid  in   God,"  is  now  revealed  ;   "to  the  in- 


24 

jftenif;  that  now  unto  the  principalities,    and  powers  in  heav- 
**efy  places  might  be  known,  by    the    church,  the  manifold 
vma&om  at'  God."     All  the  arrangements   therefore  in  the 
tssnea&gQH of  man  look    to  the  evolution  of  this   stupendous 
^aye&food  of  grace.  For  example,  the  human  race  was  not  fash- 
ioned in  the  mass,  as  were  the  angels;  nor  thrown,  like  them, 
&!*•?«  an  individual  probation,  to  stand  or  fall  each  tor  him- 
jseffi"  -alone  :  but  was  slowly  developed  in  the  lapse  of  years 
:'mm.  a  single  parent  stock — the  first  Adam    being  the  pre- 
w  and  type  of  the  second  Adam,  the  Lord    from  Heav- 
»rbo  should  restore  the  ruin  effected   by  his    dismal  fall, 
ertous  too  as  was  the   introduction    of  sin,  a   problem 
SK^eriy  insoluble  by  human  wisdom,  yet    as  a  cardinal   and 
tted  fact  it  is,  in  a  broad  and  comprehensive  view,  the 
<  essary  antecedent  of  that  grace  which  shall  look  upon  the 
ring  and  lost,  and  devise  the  method  of  their  recovery. 
raj's  no  part  of  my  purpose  to  particularize  the  details 
his  wonderful  scheme  ;  but  only  to  signalize  the  gener- 
;>J  &.-(,  that  this  world  was  built  as  the  theatre' of  grace,  and 
m&a  was  created   that  in  his   destiny  it  might  be  unfolded. 
it  be  borne  in  mind  that  grace,  like  law,  must  have  an 
irical  outworking.  In  the  fortunes  of  angels  law  work- 
■w&*m.t  its  results*  the  supremacy  and  righteousness  of  God 
itne  substantive  facts  and  actual  portions  of  the  history 
he  Universe  :  so  God  will  not  content  himself  with  the 
exposition  of  his  grace  as  a  silent  and  dormant  perfec- 
ri<$a<*f  iiis  nature.  Like  his  holiness  and  his  truth,  grace  must 
nought  out  as  a  potential    and   substantive  fact ;  only 
can  it  be  k needed  and  pressed  into   the  Divine  admin- 
' iurs,  and  become  equally  with  justice  an  element  of  his 
effiraent  The  mighty  architect  by  whom  this  principle 
elaborated  in  the  forge  of  his  own  dreadful  passion  and 
®dy  tleath,  was  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.     By  an  obedience 
: $er  in  its  proportions  than  the    aggregate  obedience  of 
he  creatures,  he    vindicated  the  law's  injured  majesty  ; 
lust  through  ins  vicarious  endurance    of  the  penalty,    he 
gs  out  the*  tenderest  affection,  of  the  father  as  a  God  of 
a  the  final  application  of  this  grace  once  historically 
ed,    both    angels    and    men    are  brought   together 
ae  glorious   body,    over  which  Christ  presides  as  the 
I — the  high-priest   of  their    worship,   gathering  their 
to  his  golden  censer  and  waving  it  before  the  eter- 
ne.     Henceforth   it  is   an  integral  principle  of  the 
iwe  government,  seated  by  the  side  of  law  in  its  admin- 
.itoa  both  in  Heaven  and  on  Earth — and  God  shall   rule 
\<er  over  the  redeemed,  not   simply  as  a   king   over  his 
jjects,  but  as  a  father  over  his  sons.     If  then   the  prima- 
t  <iti  of  God  in  the  creation  of  man   be  the    revelation 
*race,  surely  this  grace  must  interpenetrate  his  en- 
fcorv.     The  record  may  vindicate  the    supremacy  of 
but  of  law  as  it  is  tempered  by   mercy.     He  who  sits 


25 

upon  the  throne  may  be  to  look  upon  like  a  jasper  and  a 
sardine  stone  ;  but  he  will  sit  and  reign  beneath  the  sign  of 
the  emerald  rainbow. 

•2.  The  union  of  mercy  with  judgment  in  the  government 
of  this  world,   is    more    determinately    proved    by  the  fact 
'ha f  the  whole  administration  of  Providence  is  specially  committed 
hi/ the  Father  to  his  son,  Jesus   Christ.     No    utterance   of  the 
Pulpit  can  be  more  timely  and  impressive  in  the  ears  of  this 
young  nation  now  struggling  into  birth  than  the  testimony 
that  God  lias  laid  the  government  of  this   world  upon  the 
shoulders  of  his  Son,  whom  therefore  it  becomes  us  to  re- 
cognize as  our  sovereign  and  Lord.     The  fatal  error  of  our 
fathers,  in  totally  ignoring  the  existence    and   supremacy  ot 
God  in  the  great  act  of  incorporation  by   which  the  several 
States  of  the  old  American  Union  were  linked    together  in 
a   common    nationality,  has  been  partially  retrieved  in  the 
new  Constitution  of  our  own  Confederacy.     Thanks  be  to 
God  for  the  grace  given  to  our  rulers  in  receding    from   the 
perilous  atheism  of  our  forefathers  !    and  the    heart   of  this 
christian  people    throbbed  with    unutterable  joy,  when  at 
length  the  nation  as  such  found  its   God,  and  wrought  the 
recognition  of  his  being  and  providence  into  its  orgmic  and 
fundamental  law.     May  he  who  is  ever  jealous  for  his  own 
glory  look  with  favor  upon  our  repentant  confession  of  his 
name,  and  cover  us    beneath  the    wings  of  his  protecting 
care  !     But,  my  Hearers,    the  whole  truth  has  not  yet  beeti 
acknowledged  even  by  us.     This  national  confession  fails  to 
define  whether  the  God  whom  we  invoke  be  ''Jehovah  Jove 
or  Lord, — whether  the   God    of  the  Pantheist,  the  Pagan, 
the  Christian,  or  the  Deist.     It  does  not  cover  the    mighty 
truth  that    the    king,   whose  footsteps   are    seen  in    all  the 
grand  march  of  history,  is  God  in  Christ — ruling  the  world 
by  the  double  right    of  creation   and    redemption,    by    the 
Fathers  grant  and  by  the  purchase  of  his  own  -blood.     Cer- 
tain it  is,  no  government  will  ever  prove    stable  which    de- 
nies the  authority  of  this  "blessed   and   only  Potentate,  the 
king  of  kings  and    Lord   of  Lords."     The  lessons   of  the 
past  are  lost  upon  us,  if  we  fail  to  discover  in  the    revolu- 
tions of  Earth  the  voice  of  him  who  say6,  "I  will  overturn, 
overturn,  overturn  it,    and    it  shall    be    no  more,    until  He 
come  whose  right  it  is,  and  I  will  give  it  him."      It  is  ours 
to  take  this  young  nation  as  it  passes  .through  its.  baptism  of 
blood,  and  to  seal  its  loyalty  to    Christ  at  the  altar  of 
lie,  "under  whose  feet  all  things  are  placed"  as    "the  Head 
over  all,"  He  it  is  who  "ruleth  in  the  kingdom,  of  men, 
givethit  t<>  whorasover  I.'e  will"  :  and  little  as   State 
may  reek  of  it,  He  will  break  the  nations  with  a  rod  pf  iron  ' 
until  His  supremacy  be  acknowledged,  and  the  kin 
this  world  consent    to  "become  the  kingdoms  of  our  Lord 
and  of  His  Chria 

This  claim  of  the   Savior    to    universal  dominion  is  fully 


26 

asserted  in  the  sacred  volume:  and  as  it  is  a  truth  which  I  de- 
sire the  christian  people  of  this  land  to  lay  upon  their  con- 
science, permit  me  now  to  adduce  only  a  few  of  its  most 
pointed  testimonies.  In  the  solemn  hour  of  Christ's  depar- 
ture into  Heaven,  while  yet  His  sacred  feet  pressed  the 
Mount  of  Olives,  and  before  the  clouds  received  him  out  of 
the  sight  of  his  disciples,  he  bases  the  commission  of  his 
church,  the  great  charter  under  which  all  her  immunities 
are  held,  upon  the  Father's  grant  to  him  of  absolute  do- 
minion :  "all  power  is  given  unto  me  in  Heaven  and  in 
Earth — go  ye  therefore  and  teach  all  nations."  Mutt.  2S  : 
IS,  19.  Prior  to  this,  in  one  of  his  discussions  with  the 
cavilling  Jews  who  sought  to  kill  because  as  they  said  "he 
made  himself  equal  with  God,''  he  reasserts  his  supremacy; 
as  the  necessary  consequent  upon  his  Divinity:  "for  the 
Father  judgeth  no  man,  but  hath  committed  all  judgment 
unto  the  Son  ;  tiiat  all  men  should  honor  the  Son  even  as 
they  honor  the  father,  as  the  father  hath  life  in  himself,  so 
hath  he  given  to  the  Son  to  have  life  in  himself;  and  hath 
given  him  authority  to  execute  judgment  also,  because  he 
is  the  Son  of  man."  John  5  :  22,  27.  So  too  in  his  pray- 
er of  intercession  uttered  just  before  his  crucifixion,  He 
challenges  this  right  immediately  at  His  Father's  hands  : 
"as  thou  hast  given  hiin  power  over  all  flesh."  John  17  :  2. 
The  inspired  Paul  doctrinally  affirms  this  claim  in  the  most 
explicit  language,  in  several  of  his  epistles  :  as  in  Ephesians 
1  :  20,  23,  "and  set  him  at  Ids  own  right  hand  in  the  heav- 
enly places,  far  above  all  principality  and  power  and  might 
and  dominion  and  every  name  that  is  named,  not  only  in 
this  world,  but  also  in  that  which  is  to  come  ;  and  hath  put  all 
things  under  his  feet,  and  gave  him  to  be  the  head  over  all 
tilings  to  the  church."  And  in  Phillippians  2:  9,  11,  "where- 
fore also  God  hath  highly  exalted  hiin  and  given  him  a  name 
which  is  above  everv  name  ;  that  at  the  name  of  Jesus  every 
knee  should  bow,  of  things  in  heaven,  and  things  in  earth, 
and  things  under  the  earth  ;  and  that  every  tongue  should 
confess  that  Jesus  is  the  Lord  to  the  <>lory  of  God  the 
father." 

Nor  is  the  prophetic  record  of  the  Old  Testament  silent 
upon  this  point  :  for  Daniel  testifies,  "I  saw  in  the  night 
visions,  and  behold  one  like  the  Son  of  man  came  with  the 
clouds  of  heaven,  and  came  to  the  Ancient  of  days,  and. 
they  brought  him  near  before  him— and  there  was  given 
him  dominion  and  glory,  and  a  kingdom  that  all  people,  na- 
tions and  languages  should  serve  him  ;  his  dominion  is  an 
everlasting  dominion,  which  shali  not  pass  away,  and  his 
kingdom  that  which  shall  not  be  destroyed"  :  "and  the  king- 
dom and  dominion,  and  the  greatness  of  the  kingdom  un- 
der the  whole  heaven,  shall  be  given  to  the  people  of  the 
saints  of  the  Most  High,  whose  kingdom  is  an  everlasting 
kingdom,  and    all    dominions  shall    serve    and  obey  him." 


Dan.  7  :  13,  14,  27.  The  evangelical  Isaiah,  too,  lifts  up  the 
voice  of  the  ancient  church  :  "unto  us  a  child  is  born,  unto 
us  a  Son  is  given,  and  the  government  shall  be  upon  his 
shoulders;  ah£  his  name  shall  be  called  Wonderful,  Coun- 
sellor, the  Mighty  God.  the  Everlasting  Father,  the  Prince 
of  peace-  Of  the  increase  of  his  government  and  peace 
there  shall  be  no  end,  upon  the  throne  of  David  and  upon 
his  kingdom  to  order  it,  and  to  .establish  it  with  judgment 
and  with  justice,  from  henceforth  even  forever."  Isa.  9  :  6, 
7. 

It  is  moreover  not  a  little  significant  of  Christ's  supre- 
macy over  the  earth,  that  in  the  great  assize,  when  the 
throne  shall  be  set  upon  the  clouds  and  the  books'  shall  be 
opened,  it  is  Tie  who  shall  sit  and  judge  both  the  quick  and 
the  dead  :  "for  God  hath  appointed  a  day  in  which  he  will 
judge  the  world, in  righteousness,  by  that  man  whom  he 
hath  ordained;  whereof  he  hath  given  assurance  to  all  men 
in  that  he  hath  raised  from  the  dead."  Acts  17  :  31.  Fi- 
nally the  lonely  Seer  of  Patmos  turns  his  telescopic  ga/.e 
into  the  heavens  and  reveals  the  grand  Assemblyin  their 
solemn  worship  around  the  throne  :  "and  the  number  of 
them  was  ten  thousand  times  ten  thousand  and  thousands  of 
thousands,  and  every  creature  which  is  in  heaven  and  on 
the  earth,  and  under  the  earth,  and  such  as  are  'in  the  sea, 
heard  I  singing,  blessing  and  honor  and  glory  and  power  be 
unto  Hihl  that  siftoth  upon  the  throne,  and  unto  the  Lamb 
forever  and  ever."  Rev.  5:  11,  13.  Such  is  the  testimony 
rolling  up  in  one  grand  volume  from  the  Scriptures  of  God 
to  this  Headship  of  Christ  over  the  nations.  The  ancient 
bards  of  the  church  with  inspired  ecstacy  woke  the  proph- 
etic harp  to  tin's  song.  Its  music  floats  upon  the  air 
through  the  whole  night  of  thepr  paration,  till  Apostles  catch 
and  swell  the  strain  with  kindred  and  responsive  notes.  The 
church,  "with  songs  and  choral  symphonies^'  bears  the  an- 
them on  until  it  breaks  at  the  foot  of  the  judgment  throne  : 
and  its  dying  echoes  are  caught  ^\p  into  heaven,  the  aisles 
of  whose  vast  cathedral  ring  with  the  paean  of  triumph. 
"the  kingdoms  of  this  world  are  become  the  kingdoms  of 
our  Lord  and  of  his  Christ,  and  he  shall  reign  forever  and 
ever."     1;  is  ;i  truth  full  of  refreshment  to    tl  i  that 

the  government  of  this  world  is  not  in  the  hands  of  "the 
unknown  God."  under  the  administration  of  cold  and  in- 
flexible law  :  but  in  the  hands  of  (tod  in  I  ho  rules 
not  only  as  the  creator  but  as  the  restorer.  The  same  hands 
which  uphold  the  frame  of  the  Universe  are  also  stretched 
in  peaceful  benedictions  over  the  guilty  and  the  lost.  The 
whole  scheme  of  Pro\  ideuce  is  committed  to  Him  who  once 
bowed  his  head  in  anguish  under  the  load  of  human  woe. 
The  clouds  which  seem  black  with  wrath  as  they  hang 
around  the  seal  of  stern  and  unrelenting  justice,  are  tinged 
with  a  suiter  hue  as  they  *                     hfone  of  our  Imuran- 


28 

«uel,  God  with  us  :  who  moves  the  vast  machinery  of  his 
Providence  in  subordination  to  that  plan  of  grace  which  he 
*once  died  to  execute,  but  now  lives  forever  to  administer. 
So  then  "we  are  not  without  law  to  God,  but  under  the 
iaw  to  Christ."  The  Lamb  is  in  the  midst  of  the  throne  : 
therefore  it  is  encircled  by  the  bow  of  the  covenant,  "in 
sight  like  unto  an  Emerald." 

3.  This  truth  receives  its  final  confirmation  from  the  institution 
■>f  the  church,  and  the  relation  she  sustains  as  the  guardian  of  the 
Sta.te.  The  mediatorial  kingdom  of  Christ,  if  I  may  so  ex- 
press myself,  extends  in  a  double  direction  and  may  be 
viewed  under  a  twofold  aspect.  Its  more  immediate  juris- 
diction is  over  the  visible  church,  a  society  drawn  together 
out  of  the  world  and  in  which  the  heirs  of  glory  are  trained 
for  heaven  and  happiness  hereafter.  Over  and  within  this 
church,  Christ  presides  with  a  supreme  and  exclusive  au-  . 
thority.  In  his  legislative  power,  he  enacts  every  law  by 
which  she  is  to  be  governed  ;  in  his  Executive  authority, 
lie  appoints  the  officers  for  the  administration  of  the  same, 
and  calls  and  qualifies  them  for  the  discharge  of  their  high 
andsolemn  functions;  in  his  priestly  jurisdiction,  he  institutes 
her  ordinances  of  worship  ;  and  in  the  supremacy  of  his 
Headship,  grants  the  charter  by  which  all  her  privileges  and 
and  rights  are  held.  In  this  pure  theocracy,  the  mediator 
alone  is  king  :  and  they  are  guilty  of  flagrant  usurpation 
who  exercise  any  other  power  but  that  which  is  simply 
ministerial  and  declarative.  No  earthly  guide  has  any  func* 
fciop  but  to  expound  a  written  constitution,  and  by  spiritual 
■discipline  to  enforce  obedience  to  a  spiritual  and  unseen 
ruler.  But  in  order  to  extend  the  domain  of  this  church 
until  she  shall  embrace  all  nations  within  her  pale,  the 
Mediator  wields  that  wider  authority  presented  in  the  fore- 
going section — "angels  and  authorities  and  powers  being 
made  subject  unto  him."  Hence  Christ  himself  as  we  have 
-seen  predicates  the  commission  of  the  church  upon  the  fact 
that  "all  power  was  <xiven  to  him  in  heaven  and  in  earth"  : 
and  the  Apostle  testifies,  that  "he  is  made  Head  over  all 
things  to  the  church"  ;  which,  as  his  body  and  fullness,  sus- 
tains a  more  intimate  and  peculiar  relation  to  himself. 

Now  this  church,  from  the  very  design  of  her  founder  as  . 
the  depository  of  his  grace  and  the  school  for  the  spiritual 
training  of  his  people,  must  prove  the  conservator  and 
guardian  of  the  world  lying  without  her  pale  :  and  in  the 
•economy  of  Providence,  the  righteous  are  found  intermin- 
gled in  all  the  relations  of  life  with  the  wicked,  who  are 
often  spared  the  judgments  which  they  have  incurred  by 
reason  of  this  connexion.  Thus  even  guilty  Sodom,  the 
cry  of  whose  wickedness  had  gone  up  to  heaven,  would 
have  escaped  the  vengeance  of  brimstone  and  of  fire,  had 
ten  righteous  persons  been  found  in  her;  and  through  the 
want  of  only  these  ten  righteous,  "the  smoke  of  the  coun- 


29. 

try  went  up  before  the  eyes  of  Abraham   "as  the    smoke  of 
a  furnace."     All  history  moreover  attests  this  guardianship 
of  the  church  over  the  State  :  for   the   records   of  ancient 
and  modern  times  will  be  searched  in    vain  for   a   single  in- 
stance in  which  a  nation  has  been  destroyed,  holding  in  her 
bosom  a  pure  and  uncorrupted  church.     She   is  the  salt  of 
the  earth,  the  light  of  the  world  :  and  so  long  as  with  sound 
doctrine,  and  a  pure  worship,  and  uncontaminated  ordinan- 
ces, she  fulfils  the  mission    to  which  she  is  appointed,   just 
so  long  will  the  nation  which  enshrines  and  protects  her  be 
sheltered  from  destruction.     The  casket  is  preserved  forth/ 
jewel  it  contains  :  and  thus  in  every  age  the  church  of  God 
has  proved  the  Palladium  of  the  State,  the   guardian   of  its 
honor  and  its  life.     The  Hebrew   nation,  for  example,  was 
kept  intact  so  long  as  to  it  "pertained  the  adoption  and  the- 
covenants,  and  the  service  of  God  and  the  promises"  :  but 
from  the   moment    the  church  was  withdrawn  from  its  em- 
brace and  sent   forth  upon    her   grand  itinerancy    over  the 
globe,  its  nationality  was  destroyed  and  they  became  a  peo- 
ple "peeled  and  scattered."     Not  only  so  :  but  through  long 
centuries  the  proud  Empires  of  the  East    revolved    around 
this  small  but  important   nation,  as  satellites   around   their 
primary  :  and  the  sole  clue   guiding  us  through  the  mazes 
of  their  history  ia  furnished  in  the    relation  they  sustained 
to  that  ancient  and  venerable  church.  What  is  still  more  re- 
markable, not  a  single  nation   which  once  showed  kindness 
to  the  people  and  church  of  God  has  been   suffered    wholly 
to  perish  from  the  earth  ;  whilst  every  Power  that  lifted  it- 
self to  persecute  Israel  has  gone    down  a    mournful  wreck 
beneath  the  waves,  leaving  scarcely  a  trace  of  its  existence 
behind.    Egypt,  which  once  cradled  the  infant  church  amid 
the  bulrushes  of  her  own  sacred  Nile,  is  still  extant  among 
the  nations  :  and  Persia,  which  opened  the  two-leaved  gates- 
and  struck  off  the  fetters  from  captive  Israel,  has  been  pre- 
served amidst  the  throeT  of  revolutions  and  the    convulsion 
of  Empires  to  this  very  hour.     And   who  shall  say  that,  ef- 
fete as  they  now  seem  to  be,  both  these   kingdoms  may  not 
be  reserved  by  the  God  of  the  church,  because    of  ancient 
kindness  shown  to  her,  to  play    some   distinguished  part  in 
the  unfolding  history  of  the  future  ?     But   where    is  Syria, 
which  once  challenged  Jehovah  as  the  God  of  the  hills' and 
defied  his  power  to    protect    Israel   upon    the  plains?  and 
where  is  Assyria,  which  led  forth  the  tribes  to  hopeless  cap- 
tivity and  bondage  y     And  where  is  Babylon  with  her  pal- 
aces and  hanging  gardens,    once  the  wonder  of  the  world, 
under  whose  tyranny  the  daughters  of  /ion  were  compelled 
to  hang  their  harps  upon  the  willows   and  refused    to  sing 
the  Lord's  song  in    a   strange    land  (     These  mighty  king- 
doms, whose  wars  of  conquest  once  filled   the  pages  of  the 
world's  history,  have    sunk    into  such  utter  oblivion,    that 
l>ut  for  the  fragmentary  notices  of  them    embalmed  in  the- 


30 

records  of  the  church  herself  they  would  now  be  lost  to  the 
knowledge  ol  mankind,  as  though  they  had  never  been. 

These  are  portentous  facts  which  a  cultivated  statesman- 
ship will  be  compelled  one  day  to  recognize  and  gather  hints 
for  its  own  guidance.  For  doubtless  if  in  modern  days 
the  Prophet  stood,  as  of  old,  by  the  side  of  the  historian, 
with  an  inspired  interpretation  of  passing  events,  we 
should  see  now  as  then  that  the  State  lives  in  the  purpose 
of  God  for  the  sake  of  the  church, and  under  the  protecting 
shield  of  her  covenant  achieves  its  destiny.  With  the  key 
furnished  in  the  books  of  the  Old  Testament,  we  cannot  fail 
to  see  that  all  history  is  but  an  exposition  of  Providence,  as 
Providence  is  the  interpretation  of  history.  They  are  the 
two  poles  of  the  same  truth  :  Providence  aside  from  history 
is  a  blind  enigma — history  apart  from  Providence  is  a  sense- 
less fable.  Both  find  their  solution  in  God's  purposes  of 
grace  as  unfolded  through  the  church  :  and  lie  who  guides 
the  fortunes  of  that  church  sways  over  the  world  a  sceptre 
of  love — "justice  and  judgment  are  the  habitation  of  his 
throne,"  but  "mercy  and  truth  go  also  before  his  face.*' 

I  arrest  here  all  doctrinal  discussion,  reserving  space  for 
the  application  of  this  established  truth  to  the  circumstancs 
in  which,  as  a  people,  we  now  stand  before  God.  Can  we 
determine  whether  the  sufferings  of  our  beloved  land  fall 
upon  it  in  the  way  of  penal  judgment  or  of  paternal  dis- 
cipline '(  Upon  the  dark  back-ground  of  the  cloud  which 
now  hangs  so  low  and  drenches  it  with  sorrow  and  with 
blood,  can  we  discover  the  sign  of  the  rainbow,  the^mblem 
of  mercy  and  of  hope?  To  these  questions,  I  will  return 
the  long-pondered  and  deeply  cherished  convictions  of  my 
own  heart :  and  may  God  help  me  this  day  "to  speak  com- 
fortably to  Jerusalem,  and  cry  unto  her  that  her  warfare  is 
accomplished,  that  her •iqiquity  is  pardoned,  and  that  she 
shall  receive  of  the  Lord's  hand  double  for  all  her  sins"  ! 

1.  In  the  forefront  then  of  all  I  have  to  say,  I  recognize 
in  the  schism  which  has  rent  asunder  the  American  people  only  a 
new  application  of  the  law  by  which  God  has  evermore  governed 
the  world  ;  that  of  breaking  in  two  a  nation  which  has  grown  too 
strong  for  its  virtue,  in  order  to  its  preservation  and  continuance* 
The  charge  ol  rebellion,  so  clamorously  hurled  against  us 
by  our  former  political  associates,  is  sufficient!)1-  grotesque  ; 
considering  that,  among  the  first  principles  laid  down  by 
their  fathers  and  by  ours,  it  was  clearly  announced  that 
"governments  derive  their  just  powers  from  the  consent  of 
the  governed" — and  that  "whenever  any  form  of  govern- 
ment becomes  destructive  ot  the  ends  for  which  it  was  in- 
stituted, it  is  the  right  of  the  people  to  alter  or  abolish  it 
and  to  institute  a  new  government,  laying  its  foundation  on 
such  principles,  and  organizing  its  powers  in  such  form,  as 
to  them  shall  seem  most  likely  to  affect  their  safety  and 
happiness."  The  Philosophic  historian,  when  he  shall  come 


31 

to  write  the; history  of  our  times,  will  not  be  able  to  sup- 
press a  derisive  smile,  as    he  suggests    that  such  a  charge, 
coming  from  such  a  source  against  those    who    only  sought 
to  "dissolve  the  political  bands  which  connected  them  with 
another  people,"  vacates  the    very    principle  upon    which 
the  first  American  revolution  was  justified  before  the  world, 
and  convicts  these  parties  of  the  very  guilt  they  attempt  to 
fasten  upon  us — and  perhaps  constructs  a  safe  plea  for  Eng- 
land, if  she  should  so  please,  to  resume  her    rightful  sway 
over  a  people  who  now  confess  the  fatal    sin  of  revolution- 
ary sires,  i  Upon  this  however  it  does    not  become  me  here 
to  dwell.-/  I  base  the  vindication  of  tiie  South    upon  a  far 
older  record  than  the  Declaration  of  1776,    and    assert  her 
rights  under  a  more   authoritative  charter    than  the  Feder- 
al compact.     I  affirm  then  that  in   the  organic    law  under 
which  human  governments  were    constituted    by  God,  nor 
consolidation  but  separation  is  recognized  as  the  regulative  and  ' 
determining  principle.     If  we  ascend  the  stream  of  history 
to  its  source,  we  shall  discover  God   dividing  the  earth  be- 
tween the  sous  of  Noah,  "every  one  after   his  tongue,  after 
their  families,  in  their  nations"  ;  and  with  such  remarkable 
precision  that  to  this  day  we  can  trace  "the'bouuds  of  their 
habitations,"  even  as  they  were  originally  appointed.     In- 
deed, the  outspreading  landscape  of  all  history  is  embraced 
within  the  camera,  of  Noah's  brief  prophecy  ;  showing  how 
from  the  beginning  God  not  only  distributed  them  upon  the 
face  of  the  earth,  but  impressed  upon  each  branch  the  type 
of  character  fitting  it  for  its  mission  ;  Shem,  as  the  conser- 
vator of  religious  tmth;  .^  as   the   organ    of  human 
civilization;  and  Ham  as  the  drudge,    upon    whom    rested 
the    doom    of  perpetual    servitude.'     Let    it   be    observed, 
moreover,  that  tiie  first  public  and  recorded  crime  of  Post- 
diluvian history  was  the  attempt  to  thwart  God's   revealed 
purpose  of  separation,  and  to  construct    upon  the  plains  of 
Shinar  a    consolidated    Empire  whose   colossal   magnitude 
Should  overshadow  the  Earth.     "(Jo  to,"  said  they,  "let  us 
build  us  a  city, and  a  tower  whose  top  may  reach  unto  heaven; 
and  let  us  make  us  a  name,  lest  we  be  scattered  abroad  upon 
the  face  of  the  whole  Earth."     The  insane    enterprise  was 
only  checked  by  the   immediate    intervention    of  Jehovah, 
breaking  the  unity  of  human    speech,    and  thus  separating 
the  conspirators  by  the  most  impassable  of  all  harriers.  The 
explanation  of  all    this    lies    upon    the    face    of  the  story. 
Having  covenanted  with  Noah  that  he  would  not  a  second 
time  destroy  mankind  with  a  deluge,  God  must  restrain  hu- 
man depravity    that  it  may  not    rise    again   to    the  gigantic 
proportions  0f  the  Antediluvians.     This  is  done  by  the  in- 
stitution of  civil  government ;  the  germ  of  which  was  plan- 
ted in  the  D^ath  penalty,  "whoso  sheddeth  man's  blood,  by 
man  shall  shall  his  blood  be  shed,"  and  that   human  magis- 
tracy might  prove  a  more  effective  restraint  up  m    wicked- 


32 

ness,  the  race  is  distributed  into  sections,  each  living  under 
its  own  constitution,  government  and  laws.  These  commu- 
nities in  their  turn,  check  and  restrain  each  other  :  and  it 
has  been  by  balancing  nation  against  nation,  and  kingdom 
against  kingdom,  that  God  has  held  under  a  measure  of 
restraint  the  super-abounding  wickedness  of  the  world. 

When  therefore  we  are  aspersed  before  the  tribunal  of 
nations  as  "rebels"  against  the  Federal  Government,  I  leave 
the  Statesman  to  lay  his  hand  upon  the  great  instruments 
drawn  up  by  our  forefathers  and  from  them  to  justify 
the  South  ;  but  I  ascend  to  that  fundamental  law,  by  which 
in  the  first  organization  of  society  God  constituted  civil 
government,  and  say  that  this  law  of  separation  is  that  "law 
of  nature  and  of  nature's  God  which  entitles  us  to  assume 
a  separate  and  equal  station  amoog  the  powers  of  the 
Earth." 

There  are  but  two  restrictions,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  upon 
the  practical  assertion  of  this  abstract  right.  The  first  is. 
that  old  political  ties  shall  not  be  sundered  without  cause  ; 
for  the  perils, of  revolution  are  not  to  be  encountered,  nor 
are  the  foundations  of  civil  order  to  be  broken  up,  at  the 
bidding  of  mere  caprice.  The  second  is,  that  no  people 
shall  adventure  the  hazards  of  a  separate  nationality,  which 
does  not  possess  within  itself  the  elements  of  national  great- 
ness and  strength  :  for  the  law  of  distribution  established 
by  God  was  never  intended  to  break  the  race  into  frag- 
ments that  should  be  incapable  of  government  and  self  de- 
fense. As  to  the  former  of  these,  the  South  is  prepared  to 
carry  her  cause,  with  an  unshrinking  conscience,  before  any 
tribunal  human  or  divine.  As  to  the  latter,  she  is  now  pa- 
tiently upon  her  probation  and  will  bide  her  time,  I  trust, 
without  the  quivering  of  a  nerve,  until  her  vacant  seat  is 
filled  in  the  Congress  of  nations.  With  a  broad  land  diver- 
sified by  almost  every  variety  of  climate  and  soil,  and  rich 
in  all  the  products  which  man  needs  for  sustenance  as  well 
as  in  those  great  staples,  which  must  yet  control  the  com- 
merce of  the  world,  and  with  a  race  as  heroic  and  enduring 
as  ever  took  upon  its  spear  the  guage  of  battle,  the  South 
will  not  cower  beneath  the  hardships  by  which  a  truly  hisJ 
toric  people  proves  itself  worthy  of  a  truly  historic  mis- 
sion.    • 

It  is  thus  seen  to  have  been  the  established  policy  of  the 
Divine  administration,  from  the  first  constitution  of  civil 
society,  to  govern  the  world  by  a  balancing  of  power  among 
the  nations,  through  which  a  reciprocal  restraint  is  exer- 
cised by  them  all."  The  same  principle  is  further  illustrated 
in  his  ordinary  discipline  over  single  States,  thwarting  the 
tendency  to  centralism  which  builds  up  massive  and  colossal 
empires.  Through  all  time,  nations  have  been  formed  first 
by  agglutination,  and  then  by  separation.  In  their  origi- 
nal weakness,  the  most  heterogeneous  elements  are  com- 


billed,  mill  held  together  by  the  pressure  of  necessity  ;  but 
in  the  lapse  of  time,  concealed  differences  spring  up  which 
no  political  chemistry  can  make  permanently  to  coalesce. 
No  man,  for  example,  can  read  the  debates  under  which  the 
the  American  Constitution  was  framed,  without  the  convic- 
tion, that  from  the  beginning  two  nations  were  in  the  womb 
—differing  widely  from  each  other  in  their  social  institu- 
tions, in  their  views  of  government)  and  in  the  very  type  of 
their  civilization.  The  period  of  gestation  might  be  long, 
but  the  time  must  arrive  when  they  should  come  to  the 
birth.  Thus,  by  natural  cleavage,  a  nation  is  often  divided 
into  two,  whenever  the  mechanical  pressure  of"  an  outside 
necessity  becomes  too  full  to  resist  the  separating  force  be- 
tween the  discordant  pails  within.  Not  only  so:  history 
mournfully  attests  how  rapidly  a  nation  may  outgrow  its 
virtue  ;  until,  corrupted  by  its  own  aggrandizement,  it  ceases 
to  be  a  minister  of  God  for  gi  .  I,  and  becomes  a  terror  and 
a  scourge!  to  all  mankind.  In  this  event;  but  one  alterna- 
tive presents  itself:  either  to  let  the  bloated  mass  alone, 
until  like  the  Roman  empire,  it  falls  to  pieces  through  its 
own  decay;  or,  by  a  timely  rupture,  to  weaken  its  power 
and  set  the  dismembered  parts  upon  a  new  career  of  virtue 
and  of  life.  In  this  view,  the  rupture  of  this  once  great 
American  nation  is  anything  else  than  a  public  calamity. 
It  had  grown  too  great  to  be  good.  The  prize,  of  political 
ambition  was  too  large  for  the  virtue  ol  our  statesmen  ;  and 
God  in  his  mercy  has  sundered  it  in  twain,  as  the  only  me- 
thod short,  of  a  miracle  by  which  to  save  it  from  utter  ruin, 
and  allow  another  golden  opportunity  to  fulfill  the  high 
mission  undertaken  by  our  fathers. 

Casting  my  eye.  upon  the  map  "I  this  continent,  I  con- 
fess to  you  my  amazement  a1  the  egotism  and  folly  which 
but  a  little  while  since  I  shared  with  all  of  my  countrymen, 
in  supposing  thai  one  nation  could  be  virtuous  enough  to 
control  such  a  territory.  Already  we  had  stretched  our 
hands  from  sea  to  ■•  a,  and  the  whole  boundless  continent 
was  in  the  grasp  of  our  thought.  Surely  only  the  most 
overweening  sell  love  could  have  deluded  us  into  the  hope 
that  such  a  domain  could  ever  be  the  heritage  of  a  single 
people.  We  have  sinned  against  God  in  the  idolatry  of  our 
history.  We,  have  looked  out  from  our  palaces  and  towers 
and  said,  lk  Is  flot  this  great  Babylon  that  we  have  built  for 
the  house  of  the  kingdom,  by  the  might  of  our  power  and 
for  the  honor  of  our  majesty."  God  has  severely  yet  mer- 
cifully chastened  this  ambition  ;  and  for  one,  I  accept  this 
greal  schism  as  the  opening  of  a  new  career;  and  prtn  I 
that  the  foundations  of  our  public  virtue  may  be  laid  deep 
in  a  sense  of  dependence  upon  his  overruling  providence 
and  grace. 

2.  li  e  inn/,-  cur  appeal  to  Him  who  i 
the  ground,  th  ">.trcversy  between  us  and  our  foe, 

3 


34 

we  are  blameless.  Our  sins  and  the  sins  of  our  people  before 
the  God  of  heaven  we  sincerely  confess  and  bewail ;  acknow- 
ledging that  "  unto  us,  to  our  kings  and  to  our  princes  be- 
longeth  confusion  of  face,  as  at  this  day."  But,  touching 
those  who  have  drawn  out  the  sword  and  are  pursuing  us 
with  slaughter  and  with  fire,  our  protest  is  in  the  language' 
of  the  Apostle,  "  We  have  wronged  no  man,  we  have  de- 
frauded no  man."  /  Through  the  live  and  eighty  years  of 
our  united  history,  we  have  never  broken  the  covenant 
sworn  for  us  by  our  fathers ;  though  a  partial  and  unjust 
legislation  has  discriminated  against  us,  turning  the  pro- 
ducts of  our  fields  into  their  coffers,  and  draining  our  wealth 
to  build  up  the  palaces  of  their  merchant  princes — not  for 
causes  like  these  have  we  dissolved  the  bonds  of  political 
alliance  with  them  ;  though  a  furious  fanaticism  has,  through 
forty  years,  assailed  our  social  organization,  and  threatened 
to  light  the  fires  of  insurrection  in  our  very  horned  ;  though 
the  ban  of  excommunication  has  been  pronounced  against 
us  sitting  side  by  side  with  them  in  the  church  of  God,  and 
they  have  industriously  kindled  against  us  the  resentment 
of  the  civilized  world  for  that  which  was  originally  fasten- 
ed upon  us  through  their  cupidity  alone  :  yet  have  we  met 
this  storm  of  rebuke  and  blasphemy  only  with  cool  argu- 
ment and  with  written  protests.  Not  until  the  last  mo- 
ment, when  a  sectional  party  elected  upon  a  sectional  plat- 
form avowed  the  purpose,  by  the  power  of  legal  majorities, 
to  overthrow  the  entire  framework  of  our  society,  did  the 
South  arise  to  acquit  herself  of  the  outrage  meditated 
against  her  own  posterity.  And  what  at  last  is  the  crime 
for  which  we  are  now  hunted  as  the  partridge  upon  the 
mountains,  and  are  libelled  as  rebels  and  traitors  before  the 
world?  Only  the  crime  of  a  peaceful  withdrawal  from 
those  who  would  not  agree  to  walk  with  us  in  the  faith  and 
according  to  the  covenants  of  our  fathers.  This  absolutely 
is  "  the  head  and  front  of  our  offending ;"  that  as  Abra- 
ham said  to  Lot,  so  we  have  said  to  them,  "  Let  there  be 
no  strife,  I  pray  thee,  between  me  and  thee,  and  between  my 
herdmen  and  thy  herdmen-— -separate  thyself  from  me:  if 
thou  wilt  take  the  left  hand,  then  I  will  go  to  the  right ;  or  if 
thou  depart  to  the  right  hand,  then  I  will  go.  to  the  left." 
We  have  never  envied  their  prosperity,  nor  coveted  their 
possessions  ;  we  have  never  wasted  their  soil,  nor  pillaged 
their  homes  ;  but,  standing  upon  our  own  hearth  and  by 
the  side  of  our  own  altars,  we  have  poured  forth  the  best 
blood  of  our  land  in  defense  simply  of  liberty  and  life. 
Never  did  a  people  enter  upon  war  with  greater  reluctance 
than  our  own  ;  and,  firmly  as  they  prosecute  it,  when  forc- 
ed upon  their  acceptance,  never  would  a  people  more  gladly 
sheathe  the  sword  and  return  once  more  to  the  pursuits  of 
peace.  Though  our  towns  smoulderiug  in  ashes,  our  ci- 
ties  trodden  by  the  heel  of  the  oppressor;  though  our 


dismantled  homes  and  pillaged  fields  ;  though  the  graves  of 
our  martyred  suns,  and  the  silent  grief  which  sits  upon 
every  shaded  hearthstone,  all  make  their  mute  appeals  to  us 
for  retaliatory  vengeance  :  still,  with  the  festering  memory 
of  a  thousand  wrongs  which  cannot  be  breathed  even  in 
whispers  to  the  ear,  this  people  would,  before  God,  hail  the 
kindly  dove  which  should  bear  to  them  the  olive  branch  of 
a  side  and  honorable  peace.  This  is  our  pleading  before. 
Him  who  reads  the  secrets  of  all  hearts,  and  who  cannot  be 
deceived  by  the  mere  protestations  of  the  lips.  Separated 
from  the  North  by  the  recollection  of  wrongs,  which  can- 
not be  forgotten  so  long  as  memory  and  tradition  shall  last 
— separated  by  a  sea  of  blood,  which  now  rolls  its  deep, 
broad  Hood  between  the  two — separated  by  the  tombs  of 
our  dead,  rising  up  like  a  breastwork  of  defense  around  this 
consecrated  land—-separated,  most  of  all,  henceforth  and 
forever  by  the  decree  of  God  worked  out  in  solid  and  im- 
perishable fact,  the  dream  of  reconstruction  cherished  by 
our  foes  is  dissipated  before  the  high  resolve  of  our  people 
a«  the  mountain  mist  is  dissolved  before  the  morning  sun. 
But  a  just,  peace,  drawing  after  ir  the  blessings  of  life,  lib- 
erty and  happiness,  is  the  boon  for  which  we  daily  pray  be- 
iore  Him  whose  merciful  prerogative  it  is  to  succor  the  op- 
pressed and  to  bring  the  tyrant  low. 

'■'>.    I  i/<  i  m.  the  marked  interpositions 

q)  God  in  oui  favor*  during  tht  present  struggle;  coupled  with 
fas  frequent  disappointment  o)  some  of  ovr  reasonable  expecta- 
tions. The  stress  of  the  argument  lies  in  the  intersection 
of  these, two  correlated  facts.  t/t)ne  of  the  most,  remarka- 
ble features  of  this  war  has  been  the  niter  failure  in  the 
prognostication  of  some  of  out  most  sagacious  statesmen. 
Papulations  bti  ted  upon  the  most  settled  principles  of  po- 
litical economy,  or  founded  upon  the  largest  diplomatic  ex- 
perience, have  fallen  to  the  ground;  hopes  antecedently 
the  mosi  ren  unable,  time  has  hioreor  less  completely  shown 
to  be  fitUaeious.  1 1  w  ,i.  i  hough!  bv  many,  in  the  outset,  that 
the  re  vol  in  ion  would  be  accomplished  without  unsheathing 
the  sword  or  spilling  one  drop  of  human  blood.  The  ex- 
pectation wa  one  to  which  the  civilization,  not  to  say  the. 
religion,  of  the  age  should  hflfce  responded.  Then  it  was 
urged  that  cotton  would  u  rl  ii  vaunted  supremacy)  and 
the  embargo  upon  our  ports  would  bring  the  world  as  sui- 
tors to  our  door.  Then,  that  European  jealousy  of  Ame- 
rican expansion  would  seize  the  occasion  for  the  humiliation 
of  a  hated  rival,  by  the  immediate  recognition  of  the  dis- 
ent  of  thai,  proud  empire.  Then  it  was 
whis]  s-  apoleouic  policy 

■  ion,  and  commerce  once 
drd  har- 
v>a  upon 


36 

the  North  will  tumble  of  itself,  and  the  West  take  reprisals 
upon  the  greedy  East  by  the  assertion  of  its  own  indepen- 
dence. Then,  that  in  the  stoppage  of  all  trade,  the  hungry 
mob  would  turn  upon  the  guilty  administration  by  which 
it  was  deceived,  which  should  experience  the  fate  of  Acteon 
and  be  eaten  by  its  own  hounds.  Then,  that  in  the  scram- 
ble for  political  ascendancy,  the  overslaughed  Democracy  of 
the  North  would  raise  the  banner  of  peace,  and  beneath  its 
graceful  folds  ride  again  into  power.  All,  all  of  them  gen- 
uine vaticinations  of  what  seemed  a  trustworthy  oracle ; 
but  all  remaining  to  be  fulfilled  in  the  dim,  uncertain  fu- 
ture ;  or  else  silenced  under  the  frown  of  the  grim,  relent- 
less fanaticism  which,  like  the  Hindoo  Siva,  rules  that  land 
as  the  destroyer. 

Here,  then,  is  one  class  of  facts  which,  taken  by  them- 
selves, would  seem  to  infer  that  we  are  deserted  of  God — 
given  over  to  feed  upon  the  wind,  lured  on  by  false  hopes 
to  be  snared  in  a  more  fatal  ruin,  But  over  against  these 
lie  the  Irequent  and  wonderful  interpositions  of  Providence 
in  our  behalf,  which  have  wrung  the  testimony  even  from 
scepticism  itself,  "  the  Lord  is  our  helper— -we  will  not  fear 
what  man  shall  do  unto  us."  Consider,  if  you  will,  the 
strange  and  sudden  unanimity  of  our  people,  the  instant 
merging  of  all  party  feuds  when  this  great  issue  was  de- 
clared. Consider  the  spirit  of  madness  and  folly  which  fell 
upon  our  foes  in  proclaiming  war,  when  a  wise  forbearance 
would  have  drawn  a  cordon  around  the  seven  seceding  States, 
but  which  precipitated  six  others  into  our  embrace  and. 
bared  Virginia's  noble  breast  to  meet  the  sears  and  shock  of 
battle.  Consider  the  character  of  the  rulers,  military  and 
civil,  whom  God  has  appointed  to  shape'  the  destinies  of 
this  new  Republic;  and  the  execution  upon  our  enemies  of 
his  heaviest  judgment  against  a  people,  in  giving  "child- 
ren to  be  their  princes  and  babes  to  rule  over  them."  Con- 
sider, too,  the  confusion  in  the  camps  of  our  enemies,  the 
rapid  suspension  of  their  Generals,  the  collision  between 
rival  chiefs  upon  the  threshold  of  important  movements,  and 
most  of  all,  the  delays  which  have '.embarrassed  their  ad- 
vance, when  a  sudden  dash  would  have  placed  in  their  pos- 
session the  very  keys  of  our  Southern  coast.  Consider  the 
uniform  success  of  our  arms  in  all  (lie  pitched  battles  of  a, 
two  years'  campaign,  and  in  which  thedestiny  of  this  young 
nation  trembled  in  the  balance — and  how  these  brilliant 
victories  have  come  out  of  the  thickest,  gloom,  and  rolled 
back  the  despair  which  was  beginning  to  settle  upon  the 
hearts  even  of  the  brave.  Over  and  beyond  all,  consider  the 
outpouring  of  God's  spirit  and  the  revival  of  true  religion 
in  the  camps  of  our  soldiery,  and  the  conversion  of  such 
multitudes  to  the  faith  of  Jesus,  But  to  recount  these 
Providential  interpositions  would  be  to  recite  the  details  of 
our  long  and  gallant  struggle,  from  the  siege  of  Sumter  to 


37 

the  second  great  triumph  upon  the  banks!  of  the  Rappahan- 
nock.  Placing  yourselves,  then,  upon  the  crest  of  these 
contrary,  yet  overlapping  facts,  what  inference  can  a  pious 
faith  dediice  other  than  this,nhat  God  is  now  disciplining 
us  for  a  career  of  renown  ?  In  all  the  disappointment  of 
OUf  most  reasonable1  and  cherished  expectations,  he  seems 
but  the  more  to  charge  himself  with  our  defense.  I  cher- 
ish the  conviction,  with  all  the  tenacity  of  a  religious  be- 
lief, that  God  is  about  to  vindicate  the  supremacy  of  his 
own  power  in  the  establishment  of  our  independence.  And 
it  seems  to  me  most  fitting,  that  at  the  precise  juncture 
when  he  introduces  a  balance  of  power  upon  this  Western 
Continent,  he  should  renew  the  salutary  lesson  taught  by 
all  history,  that  "  the  Most  high  ruleth  in  the  kingdom  of 
men, and  giveth  it  to  whomsoever  he  will.'' 

■I.  The  North  cannot  succeed  in  its  entei'prise  against  the 
South,  except  through  the  'perpetration  of  <i  double  crime  without 
a  parallel  in  the  annals  of  the  world.  1  call  that  a  double 
crime  which  involves  the  extermination  both  of  the  white 
and  of  the  black  race  now  upon  the  soil.  The  alternative 
is  often  submitted  to  the  mind,  in  the  event  of  defeat,  i 
subjugation  or  extermination,  but  practically  they  shade  in- 
to each  other.  Unless  1  have  mistaken  the  temper  of  our 
people.l  hey  have  definitively  made  up  their  minds  to  be  de- 
stroyed sooner  than  be  conquered.  Their  resolution  and 
courage  have  risen  steadily  with  the  magnitude  of  the  strug- 
gle :  and  I  cannot  COncifeVe  of  swell  a  race  as  consenting  to 
wear  the  yoke  of  bondage.  The  conflict  will  be  waged 
even  against  the  conquerors,  in  the  fastnesses  of  the  moun- 
tain or  in  the  recesses  of  the  forest,  until  the  last  defender 
shall  sleep  in  a  mattyr's  grave. 

But,  setting  this  view  aside  as  loo  extreme,  have  we  duly 
considered  w  hat  is  involved  in  ihe  milder  term,  subjuga- 
tion ?  This  war  is  bu!  the  culmination  of  a  parliamentary 
conflict,  protracted  already  through  more  than  forty  years; 
a  conflict  in  which  the  spirit  o|  aura  nanism  has  entered  up- 
on the  fearful  struggle  with  the  spirit  >f  order  and  of  law. 
"When  it  shall  triumph,  its  victory  will  be  celebrated  amid 
orgies  over  which  the  devils  might  afford  to  blush.  When 
the  guillotine  and  sword  grow  too  weary  for  their  work, 
confiscation  and  exile  will  come  with  their  merciful  relief. 
The  banished  sons  of  ihe  South  will  wander  in  poverty  over 
the  earth,  whilst  their  vacant  lands  invite  a  horde  of  agra- 
rian settlers  from  the  lean  and  rocky  globe  of  the  North- 
man.     The  Vandal  and  ik<    llin;  will  swarm  again  upon  the 

fair  plains  of   Italy:  and,  in  oui  generation,  the  proud   and 
gallant  race  which  now  lil  beneath  our  Southern 

skies  will  hove  melted  like  a  drifl  of  snow,  and  r.ot  a  stone 
will  mark  the  place  of  its  bun  i  -.  turn  it  over  as  vou 

will,  defeat  means"exterminatlon,  and   tbataldne:  whe 
it  comes  in  the  murder  of  the  battle-field,  where  the  bravi 


8« 

love  to  fall  ;  or  in  the  slow  consumption  which    wastes  an 
exiled  people,  when  proscription  and  banishment  have  spil- 
led them  both  to  perish   on  a   foreign   soil.     For  my  own 
part,  I  prefer  not  to  live  if  my  country  be  not  free.     Let  us 
hold  it  firmly  before  our  eyes — let  us  flaunt  it  in  the  face  of 
our  foes,  that  their  success  can  only  be  achieved  through  a 
deed  of  blood  such  as  never  yet  has  stained  the  page  of  hu- 
man history.  J  A  nation  lias  prepared  itself  for  martyrdom. 
But  what  shall  be  said  of  the  other  branch  of  this  alter- 
nate crime?     If  the   experience  of  the  past  teaches  any- 
thing with  certainty,  it  is  the  fact  that,  except  in  the  con- 
dition of  servitude,  an  inferior  race  cannot  be  intermingled 
with  a  superior,  without  annihilation.     Under  our  patri- 
archal system,  the  descendants  of  Ham  have  thriven  in  the 
midst  of  us,  expanding  in  a  couple  of  centuries  from  a  few 
thousands  to  four  millions.     Their  destiny  is  involved  in 
ours.     The  morbid   philanthropy  of  the  North,  which   un- 
derlies this  whole  contest  as  its  provoking  cause,  can  work 
out  no  other  result  to  them  than  absolute  destruction.  The 
foretaste  of  this  is  found  in  the  heartless   cruelty  which  al- 
ready gives  to  such  as  are  captured  only  the  liberty  to  fight. 
Marshalled    into   ranks,  they   are  made  the  breastwork   of 
defense  around  their  white  allies  ;  and  the  bayonet  and  the 
sword  are  expected  to  solve  the  problem    of  what   shall  be 
done  with  a  race  who  must  not  be  slaves  and  whb  cannot 
be  freemen.     Alas,  for  them  !   when   their  protectors  shall 
lie  beneath  t lie  sod,  and   a  hard,  grinding,  utilitarian   race 
shall  become  the  masters   of  the  soil  !     If  the   fate   of  the 
red  man  be  not  theirs,  borne  upon  the   flood  of  white  im- 
migration till  they  are  buried  in  the  waters  of  the  Gulf,  the 
slow  decay  of  Mexican  peonage  will  steal  upon  them  by  the 
inch,  until  the  triple  scourge  of  indolence,  disease  and  vice 
shall  sweep  them  from  the  earth.     My  Hearers,    whatever 
may  be  the  complexion    of  our  political  guilt,  drawing  up- 
on our   heads   the  consuming  vengeance  of  heaven,  what 
have  these  poor  sheep  done,  that  these  butchers  should  drive 
them  to  the  slaughter,  and  make  the  earth  reel  beneath  the 
weight  of  this  stupendous  crime  '.      I  confess    to  you  that  if 
.   this  be  the  fate  of  the  African,  I  am  at  a  loss  to  understand 
the  meaning  of  th.it  Providence  which    brought  him  to  our 
shores,  and  made  him  thus  a  member  of  the  household  of 
faith  ;  and  I  feel  that  He  who   rules  the  earth    beneath  the 
emerald  rainbow  will  forefend  this   doom   of  the  slave, _  by 
the  preservation  of  the  master,  who,  under  divine  appoint- 
ment, stands  his  guardian  and  his  friend.     It  was  said  with 
great  power  by  my  brother  who  preceded  me  this  morning, 
that  in  this   Southern   land   the  church   of  God  had   never 

Mh  committed  to  her  care. 

■',"'''•  %  I 


3<t 


and  ask,  whether  four  millions  of  heathen  in  the  arms  of 
this  Southern  church  to  be  evangelized  and  saved  may  not 
be  held  as  a  pledge  from  the  God  of  the  church,  that  the 
,ja«d  shall  be  spared  m  which  those  heathen  dwell,  until 
that  church  shall  fulfil]  ,ts  work  in  training  them  lor  the 
kingdom  ol  glory       Tt  is  Qot  1VS(>n(,(!  tQ  liijs  dft     ^  Qear 

the  promised  millenium,  to  burden  the  record  of  human 
history  with  a  two-fold  crime,  whirl,  maketh  flu-  ears'of 
him  that  heareth  it  to  tingle. 

5.  Fundi,,,  our  cause  is  pre-eminently  tin-  cause  of  God  him- 
sefrand  every  blow  struck  by  „*  is  in  defense  of  His  supremacy. 
A  thought  so  solemn  should  be  uttered  with  due  moderation 
1.  TfPV        'V' ,,u  lanS?age  tamely  beneath   the  ma- 
jesty of  the  fact.     Tins  causeless  and   wicked  war,  on   the 
part  ot  our  toes,  is    born  simply  of  opposition  to  God  and 
us  kingly  supremacy  over  fee  earth.     A  bold   and  infidel 
fanaticism  has  assumed  to  sit  in  judgment  upon  the  Divine 
admmistra  ion.     Ignorant  ol  those  checks  and  balances  by 
which  God  governs  the  universe,  it  proposes  its  puny  re- 
forms to  rectify  tearing  defects  it  has  discovered  id Tthe 
whole  economy  of  Providence.     Bounding  the  patience  of 
the  Deity  by  the  measures  of  their  own  forbearance,  they 
allow  nothing  lor  the  scope  of  that  infinite  wisdom  which 
sets  evil  over -against  evil  in   this  fallen   world; and  works 
out  the  results  ol  a  grand   probation.     In   a  sin«*e  instant 
and  by  a  predetermined,  human  theory,  the  whole  machin- 
ery oi  justice  and  law  must  be  readjusted,  or  the  universe 
will  be  laid  in  ruins  at  Bis  feet.      It  is  the  old  story  of  the 
vain  mortal  who  undertook  to  guide  the  chariot  of  the  sun. 
inis  it  is,  my  Hearers,  whin,  lends  such  awful  sanctity  to 
our  war,  that    the   prerogatives   and  of  the    Divine 

Hnlero  the  world  are  disiineih  implicated,  fn  other ao-es 
nations  have  often  fought  for  independence  and  liberty,  for 
.  the  altars  and  (he  grave,  of  f!„i,  fathers,  and  for  the  more 
sacred  rights  ol  conscience  and  freedom  to  worship  God 
but  we  are  summoned  to  stand  :.   around  Jeho- 

valis -throne,  and  to  ,  who  have  } 

impeached  his  morality  and  d  * 

emmentol  the   unive!         I      „d  as  tl  t  is  whejo 

our  faresides   and   altars  are    the     I  ike,   H    rises   into  tin- 
sublime  and  awful  wl,  of  God 

and  vindicate  the  1  i  ;,  ll(!,v  t,._ 

plain  why  the  mini  ters  of  the  Gospel  throughoul  this  laud 
Have  borne  a  distinguished  p  tbia  momentous  strug- 

gle.    It  is  not  simply  under  the  imp  ;,u  natriot- 

J8ui,  grand  as  that  sentimeni  may  be:  bui  oul  of  loyalty  to 
God  agamst  whose  rightful  supremacy  a  w,  >ked  infidelity 
has  lifted  its  rebehous  arm.  The  moral  aspect  of  this  con- 
troversy they,  at  least,  understand:  and  muchasthei 
their  country  to  be  free,  with  an  infinitely  deeper  fervortfo 
they  desire  that  God  should  reign.     Whal  people,  since  the 


40 

days  of  the  ancient  theocracy,  ever  had  such  cause  to  feel 
that  the  battle  is  not  theirs,  but  Clod's  '(  Let  us  take  shel- 
ter beneath  the  shadow  of  His  throne.  God  will  assert  our 
liberties  in  the  assertion  <>(  his  rights.  He  that  will  not 
give  bis  :rh)i'v  to  another.,  will  uol  abdicate  hispoweratthe 
bidding  of  a  lawless  fanaticism,  nor  yield  his  robust  justice- 
a  prey  to  a,  mawkish  and  sentimental  philanthropy.  We 
lay  our  nation  al  his  feet,  and  bide  his  arbitration  through 
the  ordeal  of  battle. 

Such  are  some  of  the  grounds  on  which  1  base  the  con- 
viction that  God  is  dealing  with  us,  not  in  judgment,  but 
in  discipline.  It  is  a  day  of  sore  and  bitter  trial,  in  which 
sorrow  comes  to  every  home.  But  it  is  also  a  heroic  day 
in  which  to  live.  The  sacrifices  we  lay  upon  the  altar  of 
our  country  are  sacrifices  laid  upon  the  altar  of  our  God. 
Patriotism  is  sanctified  by  religion  and  is  supported  by  its 
faith.  We  are  learning  in  the  same  school  of  suffering  with 
our  heroic  forefathers,  that  liberty  is  better -than  gold,  and 
honor  more  precious  than  fortune.  Let  our  people  under- 
stand that  this  war  is  henceforth  simply  a  .question  of  en- 
durance and  of  will.  The  old  Saxon  word,  toughness,  ex- 
presses exactly  the  quality  upon  which,  under  God,  all  de- 
pends, it'  we  have  not  the  nerve  to  bear  immensely  more 
than  we  have  yet  borne,  we  are  not  worthy  to  be  free. 
Nations,  like  men,  are  made  compact  and  enduring  through 
discipline.  Lei  us  nave  Faith  in  God  and  in  the  future;  and 
from  our  heroism  shall  spring  sons  and  daughters  capable 
of  immortal  destinies.  Nothing  great  is  ever  wrought  with- 
out faith.  The  men  in  all  ages  who  have  made  history 
have  been  men  of  faith  —  men  who  could  hide  a  great  prin- 
ciple deep  in  their  heart-,  and  work  it  out  as  a  potential  and 
substantive  fact,  and  await  the  verdict  of  posterity.  Be- 
lieving in  the  grand  and  the  true,  they  could  put  their  heel 
up  ii  the  present,  and  lifting  up  the  curtain  which  hides  the 
far-oil'  future  from  other  men,  they  drew  up  that  future  by 
a.  magnetic  attraction  to  themselves,  and  lived  abreast  of  it. 
Let  the  pulse  of  a  generous  and  sanctified  patriotism  beat  in 
our  breasts — doing  our  whole  duty  to  ourselves,  our  coun- 
try and  our  God,  and  leaving  the  issue  with  Him  who  sits 
upon  the  sapphire  throne  and  rules  the  world  encircled  with 
the  bow  of  his  mercv. 


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